Multiple reports are emerging of an incident on Sunday near the Gulf of Oman, in which an Iranian Navy frigate fired upon another Iranian Navy ship named the Konarak with an anti-ship missile. The Iranian media has yet to confirm this incident.
In an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the Konarak sustained substantial damage according to the reports, and initial claims are 30-40 people were killed or missing after the missile firing. The Konarak was identified as a support ship.
Though tensions are high around Iran’s coast recently, such incidents are extremely rare. It would also be rare for Iranian media to neither confirm or deny the incident by the time it is in several media outlets.
The frigate was armed with C-802, which are short-range Chinese anti-ship cruise missiles. Such missiles are meant to have security mechanisms to prevent accidental firing at friendly targets, which would add to the questions if this turns out to be a true story.
Could be a little USN electronic warfare magic disrupting a training exercise.
Iran probably has no real experience dealing with that.
The US has effectively been at war with Iran for 40 years. Why do you think this would be the first time it engaged in any electronic hijinks?
Yes, well known instances beginning with satellite targeting for Saddam Hussein’s chemical ordinance on Iranian troops in the ’80’s, the Bush-Netanyahu STUXNET attack on the generating plant, and, as Karaca says below, last year’s shootdown of its own passenger plane is plausibly ascribed to a US military satellite jumbling its electronic id.
I don’t, however, not being more overt wasn’t exactly working.
Not that anything could work, but there’s some emotional satisfaction in knowing the Theocracy has to suck it down and choose between admitting incompetence or impotency.
Well at least the Iranians now know that they can sink a ship with the missiles they have.
So now they can confidently go after enemy ships in the Gulf.
If this happened as reported, what they now know is that their “carrier killer” missiles … well, aren’t.
Would you be willing to put that to the test?
Why would I need to? They just did.
Missile – 1
Ship – 0
The C-802 is not a “carrier killer missile.” It is more like the US Harpoon missile, a subsonic turbojet with a 190 kg warhead of the same size and weight and shape as the Harpoon.
They do have carrier killer missiles. They are much larger and faster, with much bigger warheads. They come from the same sources, China with some local manufacture.
i wouldn’t advise that. a country with four paltry power grids that can be taken out in seconds and only six metropolitan areas and is sanctioned to the hilt better not start acting up. we may just take control of that straight of hormuz that they think is theirs.
This shows that the missile works. The C-802 Chinese anti-ship cruise missile hit the ship and killed 19 of the crew.
They had an accident. In delight over their mistake, don’t miss the rest of the meaning. The missiles do work.