| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Iraq | |
| Britain restarts Gulf ships boarding operations | |
| 2007-04-25 | |
| LONDON - Britain’s Royal Navy is to resume boarding operations in the northern Gulf that were suspended following the capture of 15 personnel by Iranian forces, Defence Secretary Des Browne announced on Tuesday. The Royal Navy has a United Nations mandate to patrol Iraqi territorial waters to protect the strife-torn country’s ports and oil installations. “Pending the results of the inquiries set up to identify any lessons we can learn from this incident, we have taken measures, in line with the findings of the initial reviews of procedures, to ensure the risk to boarding operations is minimised,” Browne said in a written statement to parliament’s lower House of Commons. “This will involve an incremental return to full boarding operations in all areas.”
| |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #12 One of the replacement naval officers: |
| Posted by: DMFD 2007-04-25 23:24 |
| #11 Type 22 frigate should be enough backup, but Brits are intercepting ships very far from it. I think that it is very unwise, since there is a narrow space and no shelter on a RHIB. If there are armed hostiles on a ship that is to be boarded, they could fire on a boarding party and inflict heavy casualties. |
| Posted by: trenchsol 2007-04-25 21:05 |
| #10 Type 22 frigate should be enough backup, but Brits are intercepting ships very far from it. I think that it is very unwise, since there is a narrow space and no shelter on a RHIB. If there are armed hostiles on a ship that is to be boarded, they could fire on a boarding party and inflict many casualties. |
| Posted by: trenchsol 2007-04-25 21:05 |
| #9 I don't understand why a type 22 frigate isn't enough backup. It has a 114 mm gun with a range of 12 miles, plus Harpoon missiles. It also has a Mk 8 Lynx helicopter, armed with Sea Skua anti-ship missiles. If they go into a boarding operation assuming that the target is hostile, and that there may be hostiles lurking about, the ship should be able to protect itself and the boarding party. |
| Posted by: Rambler 2007-04-25 18:18 |
| #8 I guess Britain finally agreed to accept the CAP the US offered for future patrols - two F/A-18s, a flight of four A-10s on the runway at the nearest airfield, and a dozen Apaches and a pair of B-1s as back-up. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-04-25 12:26 |
| #7 Why don't they patrol in patrol boats, like the rest of the world, instead of those RHIBs that could be blown away with single RPG hit ? |
| Posted by: trenchsol 2007-04-25 11:15 |
| #6 Why don't they patrol in patrol boats, like the rest of the world, instead of those RHIBs that could be blown away with single RPG hit. |
| Posted by: trenchsol 2007-04-25 11:15 |
| #5 Don't forget this. |
| Posted by: Perfesser 2007-04-25 10:11 |
| #4 They could try using their firesticks next time. They make a nice bang-boom sound that might frighten off the Persians. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-04-25 09:41 |
| #3 Need more humiliation? |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-04-25 06:24 |
| #2 And Mr. Bean got his I-Pod replaced? |
| Posted by: Captain America 2007-04-25 01:02 |
| #1 IRONY > WAFF.com Poster claims to have non-PS'ed photo of brand-new Chinese PLAN TYPE 022 sinking = listing as iff taking on water? shortly after leaving drydock??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2007-04-25 00:09 |
