They have been building this capability for decades. The lack of countermeasures by the US military shows the complete lack of planning by the Trump administration.
Ukrainian forces would be better prepared to deal with this, but Trump says "they have no cards". This is why you build alliances, not destroy them.
74
GoneSilent1 day ago
+11
30+ boats showing up on sat images crossing just about the whole strait. We need to bring back Thunder in Paradise.
11
G-FAAV-1001 day ago
+4
Heard they're busting out the A-10 warthogs instead.
Gun with attached plane go BRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
4
VibeAnalyst1 day ago
+2
"We count 30 Islamic ships, Lord Trump. But they're so small they're evading our turbolasers"
2
GreyGreenBrownOakova1 day ago
-12
Boats are too slow, [even Apache helicopters are too slow without landing platforms. ](https://youtu.be/s8MHM4I3sK0)This needs a shitload of loitering, high speed, AI assisted drones.
-12
GoneSilent1 day ago
+3
Yes we are negative 27 slow mq-9 reapers now since Iran.
3
GreyGreenBrownOakova1 day ago
+4
Too big. They also fire Hellfire missiles at $150,000 each, to sink $5000 Iranian speedboats.
4
InformationHorder1 day ago
+1
Yeah but those are meant to be expendable since they are unmanned. They can go into much higher risk areas for relatively low cost.
1
table_folder1 day ago
+1
Send in the [USCG HITRON teams](https://youtu.be/ncTEaYUPGm4?si=TEyshP0XmFXQja1u)
1
planetarybum1 day ago
+19
"Trump: Boats had not been considered much of a threat."
Relied on the overall power of the US military without a detailed strategy and overestimated the fear factor.
19
ChauvinistPenguin1 day ago
+27
I did a little bit of reading in their speedboat force. Estimated to have somewhere between 3000 and 5000, with various armaments installed including machine guns, torpedoes and SAMs.
They're the naval equivalent of a pickup truck with a weapon rigged to the back - perfect for asymmetric warfare.
27
CardMechanic1 day ago
+21
The Hilux of the Seas
21
huhwhuh1 day ago
+3
1 drone for each boat is the most cost effective way
3
DrXaos1 day ago
+7
These are known as targets in Ukraine right now to a $700 drone.
7
KtaadnRota23 hr ago
+1
Yeah a speedboat with a machine gun mounted to it is probably even cheaper than a Shahed drone. It's so trivially c**** to keep the strait closed that I expect they will still be able to do it after their economy collapses completely.
1
teabaggins761 day ago
+4
Not a threat by Trump and Hegseth. To all of thier military advisors who knew better, and should be listened to however of course those people knew. Its just that the US is run by man child morons
4
tri1703911 day ago
+1
Given that Ukraine doesn't even have a navy and their drones/drone-boats are wrecking havoc on Russia with an actual Navy lol.
1
Never_barked_a_lie1 day ago
+19
See: Millenium Challenge 2002. We had all the expectation this would happen over 2 decades ago.
"Thus warned of Blue's approach, Red used a fleet of small boats to determine the position of Blue's fleet by the second day of the exercise. In a preemptive strike, Red launched a massive salvo of cruise missiles that overwhelmed the Blue forces' electronic sensors and destroyed sixteen warships: one aircraft carrier, ten cruisers and five of Blue's six amphibious ships. An equivalent success in a real conflict would have resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 service personnel. Soon after the cruise missile offensive, another significant portion of Blue's navy was "sunk" by an armada of small Red boats, which carried out both conventional and suicide attacks that capitalized on Blue's inability to detect them as well as expected."
19
Charybdis1501 day ago
+4
I see you very conveniently left out the next paragraph:
> Such defeat can be attributed to various shortfalls in simulation capabilities and design that significantly hindered Blue Force fighting and command capabilities. Examples include: a time lag in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance information being forwarded to the Blue Force by the simulation master, various glitches that limited Blue ships point-defense capabilities and error in the simulation which placed ships unrealistically close to Red assets.
Also, if I recall, the leader of Red got some flak for some…unorthodox claims like that messages passed by motorcycle courier travel at light speed and fast boats (basically converted speedboats) can be armed with missiles and torpedos larger than the boat itself…
4
Never_barked_a_lie16 hr ago
Exercise-isms aren't the relevant part here. The small boats are. There are always white card simulations and buffer margins built into wargames. The tactics were used and we were caged against them, however successful.
0
Thurak01 day ago
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002#Exercise_action
The USN really was warned. The only thing they seemingly adapted to was the cruise missile threat as so far no USN ships have been sunk.
0
Tobias---Funke1 day ago
+4
Trump said all the water boats were destroyed.
4
OldLondon1 day ago
+19
Trump lies and is an idiot
19
LilyBelle5041 day ago
+7
Conventional military naval vessels? Yea, 50 ships to davey's locker.
3D printed civilian fishing boats turned into an attack boat the next day + guys with AKs on them? Nope.
It doesn't take much to stop an unarmed merchant ship. Somali pirates have been doing it for decades.
7
Mister_Brevity1 day ago
+1
Did he really say water boats :/
1
Aggressive_Chair14701 day ago
+1
no, he said boats
1
No-Space9371 day ago
These don't really matter, missile and drone attacks are still the main threat and leverage against shipping in the strait. notice how these only come out during the ceasefire, they would fair just about aswell as those fishing boats have been in the carribean if the war goes hot again.
0
CraftyPerformance2721 day ago
Why isn't the USA blowing up those boats like they blew up the drug smuggling boats and submarines?
0
Mercutio9991 day ago
Because they don’t have fishermen on them
0
CraftyPerformance2721 day ago
+1
Fisherman must make a lot of money in South America if they can afford fishing submarines or if they can afford to put $200,000 plus high speed engines on those tiny boats that aren't good for fishing.
1
GreyGreenBrownOakova16 hr ago
The drug smuggling boats didn't number in their thousands, couldn't shoot back, didn't have bigger missiles and mines in support and couldn't hide along the nearby coastline. If the Navy tried this in the Hormuz straight, they would lose an aircraft carrier.
0
teabaggins761 day ago
-7
That would be a fuckin awesome feeling knowing youre beating the US navy and all its might, resources etc. the salt spray, the speed, the uppers - these sailors must be the "gods of Hormuz"
32 Comments