Image source: topwar.ru
On December 5, ships of the US Navy used lasers against a patrol boat of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian boat tried to temporarily "blind" the American ships with a searchlight.
The official statement of the US Navy command claims that an Iranian boat belonging to the IRGC Navy took "unsafe and unprofessional" actions, trying to prevent the movement of two American ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian sailors began to shine a spotlight dangerously close to American ships.
According to the Central Command of the US Army, the destroyer USS The Sullivans and the ship of the expeditionary naval base USS Lewis B. Puller participated in the incident. To respond to the Iranian boat, American ships used sound warnings and so-called non-lethal lasers. As a result, they continued their course in the Strait of Hormuz without further incident.
The official representative of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces, Colonel Joe Buccino, said that such actions of the Iranian navy are typical of Tehran's policy in the Middle East.
It is only unclear what the US Navy ships are doing in the Strait of Hormuz, many thousands of kilometers from the American coast.
Note that this is not the first incident in recent times. So, last week, an American warship stopped an attempt to transport 50 tons of ammunition on a ship heading towards Yemen in the Gulf of Oman. The vessel was carrying about 1 million rounds of ammunition for 7.62 mm small arms, 25,000 rounds of ammunition for 12.7 mm heavy machine guns and a large amount of other ammunition.
The IRGC Navy, in turn, regularly tries to prevent the movement of American ships near the territorial waters of Iran. The IRGC command previously announced an increase in the combat capability of the Iranian fleet in the context of the necessary confrontation with American activity in the region.
As for the capabilities of laser weapons, the US Navy is currently working on a large number of projects to equip warships with laser weapons that can disable or destroy enemy systems. For example, Lockheed Martin has created a high–energy laser with a built-in optical dazzler - specifically for the needs of the US Navy. Such lasers, known as HELIOS, were transferred to the US Navy in August 2022 for installation on warships.
The command of the US Navy claims that the HELIOS laser improves the characteristics of the overall combat system of the ship, which contributes to the overall increase in combat capability and ensuring the safety of ships and sailors of the American fleet.
According to the manufacturer, the multi-purpose HELIOS system will provide tactically important combat capabilities of the laser weapon system as an integral part of the multi-level defense architecture of American warships.
