US To Send 'Floating Commando Base' To Mideast

[waltky]

US To Send 'Floating Commando Base' To Mideast ...

Navy wants commando ‘mothership’ in Middle East
January 27,`12 - The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats.

In response to requests from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show. Special Operations forces are a key part of the Obama administration’s strategy to make the military leaner and more agile as the Pentagon confronts at least $487 billion in spending cuts over the next decade.

Lt. Cmdr. Mike Kafka, a spokesman for the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, declined to elaborate on the floating base’s purpose or to say where, exactly, it will be deployed in the Middle East. Other Navy officials acknowledged that they were moving with unusual haste to complete the conversion and send the mothership to the region by early summer. Navy documents indicate that it could be headed to the Persian Gulf, where Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for much of the world’s oil supply. A market survey proposal from the Military Sealift Command, dated Dec. 22 and posted online, states that the floating base needed to be delivered to the Persian Gulf.

Other contract documents do not specify a location but say the mothership would be used to “support mine countermeasure” missions. Defense officials have said that if Iran did attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, it would rely on mines to obstruct the waterway. With a large naval base in Bahrain, and one or two aircraft carrier groups usually assigned to the region, the Navy has a substantial presence in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters. Adding the mothership would do relatively little to bolster U.S. maritime power overall, but it could play an instrumental role in secretive commando missions offshore.

The deployment of the floating base could also mark a return to maritime missions for SEAL teams, which for the past decade have spent most of their time on land in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other details of the project became public Tuesday when the Military Sealift Command posted a bid request to retrofit the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport docking ship, on a rush-order basis.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Looks like Iran rampin' up missile production fer a war...

Iran mass producing anti-ship cruise missile: TV
Feb 4, 2012: Iran has begun mass production of an anti-ship cruise missile, state television's website said on Saturday.

The Zafar missile, as it is dubbed in the report, "is a short-range, anti-ship cruise missile capable of destroying small- and medium-sized targets with high precision." It can be mounted on speed boats and other light vessels, can withstand electronic warfare, and is able to fly in low altitudes to avoid detection, the report said.

Iran has a fleet of speed boats that often challenge US and allied warships in the Gulf. The vessels are usually controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guards and can be equipped with missiles. The Islamic republic says it has a wide range of missiles. It says some are capable of striking targets inside Israel as well as Middle Eastern military bases of its other main archfoe, the United States.

Tehran regularly boasts about developing missiles having substantial range and capabilities, but Western military experts cast doubt on its claims. Iran's military said in January that it could close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf, through which a third of global marine oil traffic passes, if it is attacked.

Source

 

[waltky]

US carrier in Strait of Hormuz...

USS Abraham Lincoln in Strait of Hormuz voyage
14 February 2012 - The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, close to the coast of Iran, for the second time in recent weeks.

A BBC reporter on board said an Iranian patrol boat at one point passed by two miles (3.2km) from the carrier. The carrier was accompanied by a US cruiser and destroyer. Iranian officials recently threatened to close the channel, through which 20% of the world's oil exports pass, in a row over oil trade embargoes. The BBC's Jonathan Beale on board the Abraham Lincoln says the US has insisted it will keep the busy shipping lane open.

At its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is only 21 nautical miles (40km) wide. Earlier, the US navy said the Iranian patrol boat passed within about half a mile of the carrier, but they later corrected this to two miles. While travelling through the narrowest part of the strait, all fighter jets on the carrier were grounded, our correspondent says, but US Navy helicopters flew above the carrier.

He says it was clearly a carefully planned operation and the crew were pleased to have come through the most difficult stage of the voyage without incident. A French warship and UK naval vessels accompanied the aircraft carrier in a journey through the strait last month. As well as ensuring the shipping channel remains open, the aircraft carrier will also eventually have the task of assisting operations in Afghanistan.

The EU last month banned all oil imports from Iran amid growing concern over Tehran's nuclear programme. Both the US and EU have since lobbied countries around the world to block Iranian oil imports. Iran says its nuclear programme is solely for power generation, but Western nations fear Tehran is trying to develop a weapons capability.

BBC News - USS Abraham Lincoln in Strait of Hormuz voyage

 

[JStone]

muslimes are good terrorists but shitty warriors. Israel fucked up multiple muslime militaries in 1948 and 1967 leaving them traumatized and humiliated to today.

 

[waltky]

Obama ready to back up failure of diplomacy with action...

Obama warns of force against Iran, but urges diplomacy
4 March 2012 - Barack Obama addressed the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee

President Barack Obama says the US "will not hesitate" to use force to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, but says diplomacy could still succeed. Addressing an influential pro-Israel lobby group, Mr Obama also warned against "loose talk" of war in the dispute with Tehran. Earlier, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Iran was "a danger to the world". The US and its allies suspect Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, a claim Tehran denies.

As tension in the region rises, speculation has been mounting that Israel might launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear sites. "Iran's leaders should know that I do not have a policy of containment - I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," Mr Obama told the annual American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) policy conference in Washington. "And as I've made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests."

However, he said Iran was isolated and there was an opportunity "for diplomacy - backed by pressure - to succeed". "Already, there is too much loose talk of war," Mr Obama added. "Over the last few weeks such talk has only benefited the Iranian government, by driving up the price of oil which they depend upon to fund their nuclear programme."

'Corrupt regime'

Mr Peres described Iran as "an evil, cruel and morally corrupt regime" bent on controlling the Middle East. He told delegates: "Iran is the centre, the sponsor, the financier of world terror. Iran is a danger to the entire world." Mr Obama is due to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. The US has recently tightened its sanctions against Iran, imposing sanctions on the country's central bank and against three oil companies that trade with Iran. The European Union has also adopted an oil embargo against Iran. Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful ends.

BBC News - Obama warns of force against Iran, but urges diplomacy

See also:

Time to attack Iran? Obama-Netanyahu summit could make fateful decision.
March 4, 2012 - There may be more agreement between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on how to proceed about Iran than some observers suggest.

President Obama greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Monday for what are likely to be the most consequential talks the two leaders have had. The significance is because of the topic that will dominate their discussion: Iran. The conversation could determine nothing less than whether there is a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities sometime before the US elections in November.

High-priority topics will include how much time to give the “crippling” sanctions that both the United States and Israel say they still hope can persuade Iran to change course on its nuclear ambitions; what to watch for in (and expect from) international talks with the Iranians, which are expected to resume in the next month or so; and each leader’s red lines that, once crossed, would trigger military action against Iranian nuclear facilities. The Obama-Netanyahu relationship is actually less strained than conventional wisdom would suggest, some experts with close knowledge of the two leaders say.

The tensions between the two governments over Iran have little to do with personality, some say, and more to do with the differing assessments on each side of when Iran will have to be stopped militarily. Also, Israel, as America’s junior in terms of military might, is likely to feel a need to act sooner than the US does. “There is a timeline issue,” says Dennis Ross, a longtime US Mideast diplomat who until recently was the Obama administration’s special envoy on the Middle East and Iran.

That timeline has “less to do with where the Iranian nuclear program is” and more to do with “the point at which Israel loses the ability to act militarily,” Mr. Ross says. Because of America’s more extensive military capabilities, “That zone of immunity [at which point Iran’s progress toward developing a nuclear weapon is beyond military setback] arrives earlier for them [the Israelis] than for us.” Another difference is how the two governments perceive the Iranian threat. To Israel, a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat, since some Iranian leaders have called for Israel’s annihilation and since Iran already possess missiles that can reach Israel.

MORE

 

[waltky]

USS Ponce makes its way to the Middle East...

U.S. sending floating naval base through the Suez Canal
June 21st, 2012 - A U.S. warship designed as a floating base for naval special forces is scheduled to transit through the Suez Canal for the first time as early as Friday, Navy officials say.

The USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship, recently finished a complete overhaul that now has it configured to operate as a floating staging platform for the military. It is being launched into the oil shipping lanes at a time of heightened tensions across the region, U.S. Navy officials told CNN. The ship began approaching Suez on Thursday and is expected to enter the canal shortly on its way to the Persian Gulf.

The ship will function as a staging base for special operations forces and small patrol boats, including mine countermeasure vessels, in gulf waters that Iran has previously threatened to shut down. Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, had long pressed for the conversion of the Ponce in order to have a mobile platform from which troops could quickly deploy at a time when budget cuts are restricting large-scale deployments.

The Ponce is specifically tailored to maritime missions in the Persian Gulf region, where land-based forces often do not have ready access and concerns persist about maintaining open access to the Strait of Hormuz for international shipping. The ship has a mixed crew of Navy officers and enlisted personnel, as well as civilian government mariners. The ship is expected to reach Bahrain about 10 days after making it through the canal. It is not clear when combat forces may board the ship.

Source

 

[Jos]

I had no idea that America had Any commando's