Tuesday, April 21, 2015

U.S. Battleships to Yemen

Yemen brings US and Iran closer to a naval face-off. 

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and the guided missile cruiser USS Normandy passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, joining seven other U.S. battleships in the area, including the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which includes a complement of more than 2,000 U.S. Marines.

 
“The focus is to make sure we have sufficient forces in the area to counter any threats,” said U.S. 5th Fleet spokesman Commander Kevin Stephens, adding that weapons smuggling is a concern. "If they were to have indications of weapons smuggling, there are a number of steps they could take,” he said. 


Such measures could include “consensual boarding,” something the Navy did to a Panamanian-flagged vessel in the Red Sea that had been suspected of carrying arms, although nothing was found.


5 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"If they were to have indications of weapons smuggling, there are a number of steps they could take,” he said.

There is so much hedging in that wording, you could smuggle a sub through it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

it's just for show.

how do I know is just for show?

nobody is saying is just for show.

Mumpsimus said...

So VOA doesn't have an editor who knows what a "battleship" is.

edutcher said...

I thought we mothballed the last of the battleships 10 years ago.

AllenS said...

Sounds like VOA thinks that all ships that have evil guns on them are battleships.