Speedboats Blasted By Brimstone
July 16, 2012: On June 25th a British Tornado jet fighter fired a Brimstone missile at a fast moving small armed boat (of the type Iran favors) and hit the target. The Brimstone used its own radar to keep track of the target. This "fire and forget" capability makes jets, operating outside the range of any weapons on these small boats, capable to quickly and safely destroying many of these fast attack boats. This is not surprising as Brimstone was the most outstanding air-to-ground weapon used during the Libya campaign last year, and for much the same reasons.
The British 55 kg (109 pound) Brimstone was originally developed as an upgraded version of the American Hellfire. Brimstone ended up as a Hellfire in general shape only. Weighing the same as the Hellfire (48.5 kg/107 pounds), Brimstone was designed to be fired by fast movers (fighter-bombers), not just (as with Hellfire) from helicopters and UAVs. Aircraft can carry more of these lightweight missiles. These are perfect for small targets, including vehicles that need to be hit, without causing injuries to nearby civilians or friendly troops. This is what made Brimstone so popular in Libya.
A major factor in the success of Brimstone is its superior guidance system. Four years ago Britain added a dual-mode (radar and laser) seeker to Brimstone. Originally, Brimstone was to be just an American Hellfire with a British seeker (a miniature, millimeter wave radar) and configured to be launched from jets. Brimstone did that but never got a chance to show how effective it was until Afghanistan and Libya. The performance of Brimstone was particularly impressive in Libya because the missile was used so frequently. That got the Americans and French interested in using it as a highly effective anti-vehicle weapon for their fast-movers (jet fighter-bombers).
Hellfire was first developed three decades ago as a helicopter launched anti-tank weapon but has proved to be very useful against enemy infantry hiding out in buildings or caves. Hellfire later proved to be an ideal weapon for use by larger UAVs. The current version has a range of eight kilometers, while Brimstone has a range of 12 kilometers.
The Brimstone radar seeker makes it possible to use the missile in "fire and forget" mode. The laser seeker is more accurate (to within a meter or two of the aim point). When used on jet fighters there is a special launcher, hanging from a wing that holds three Brimstone missiles (instead of one larger missile).
The nine kilogram (20 pound) Brimstone warhead is sufficient to destroy vehicles, without causing a lot of casualties to nearby civilians. British fighter pilots have become quite good at coming in low and taking out individual vehicles with Brimstone missiles. Carrying a dozen Brimstones, a fighter-bomber can easily use all of them in one sortie, all the while staying out of range of ground fire.
"The chief aim of all government is to preserve the freedom of the citizen. His control over his person, his property, his movements, his business, his desires should be restrained only so far as the public welfare imperatively demands. The world is in more danger of being governed too much than too little.
It is the teaching of all history that liberty can only be preserved in small areas. Local self-government is, therefore, indispensable to liberty. A centralized and distant bureaucracy is the worst of all tyranny.
Taxation can justly be levied for no purpose other than to provide revenue for the support of the government. To tax one person, class or section to provide revenue for the benefit of another is none the less robbery because done under the form of law and called taxation."
John W. Davis, Democratic Presidential Candidate, 1924. Davis was one of the greatest trial and appellate lawyers in US history. He also served as the US Ambassador to the UK.
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Nice and all, but the US appears to be going with the Griffin. It already is installed on some of the ships in the region. Can't wait til the eyerainians try their much vaunted swarming boat technique and they all start blowing up one by one miles away :3
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My Tank is Fight
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"The chief aim of all government is to preserve the freedom of the citizen. His control over his person, his property, his movements, his business, his desires should be restrained only so far as the public welfare imperatively demands. The world is in more danger of being governed too much than too little.
It is the teaching of all history that liberty can only be preserved in small areas. Local self-government is, therefore, indispensable to liberty. A centralized and distant bureaucracy is the worst of all tyranny.
Taxation can justly be levied for no purpose other than to provide revenue for the support of the government. To tax one person, class or section to provide revenue for the benefit of another is none the less robbery because done under the form of law and called taxation."
John W. Davis, Democratic Presidential Candidate, 1924. Davis was one of the greatest trial and appellate lawyers in US history. He also served as the US Ambassador to the UK.
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Swarm attacks can, and if the worst happens, will be, a very effective tactic, especially when combined with conventional attacks in a congested and enclosed waterspace.
Although a fan of Brimstone, its recent rise to fame has been because of its dual seeker mod. The fire and forget option is yet to convince and can also bring with it serious ROE issues.
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Swarm attacks can, and if the worst happens, will be, a very effective tactic, especially when combined with conventional attacks in a congested and enclosed waterspace.
Hmmmmmm. I wonder. Swarm attacks rely on a large number of small vulnerable, though fast, craft, getting close enough to a major ship to launch AS missiles. Swarm, by definition, means concentration. I'm curious as to what you think the USN will be doing while these small craft concentrate. My guess is their swarming might be adversely affected by and appropriate number of attack helicopters before they reach launch range. Other aircraft types might also diminish their numbers. Additionally, there must be a limited number of points from which such boats could be launched, replenished, etc. I would think that airstrikes might quickly end the threat be destroying anything that might even look like a naval facility. A Tomahawk with cluster munitions launched by submarine might well damage fuel and munitions storage in these areas.
I'm not suggesting that the IRI might not be able to organize and execute a limited number of swarm attacks early on, but their ability would degrade very quickly. Attacking US warships has, at least traditionally, not been a healthy occupation. I doubt these attacks will be any different.
Although a fan of Brimstone, its recent rise to fame has been because of its dual seeker mod. The fire and forget option is yet to convince and can also bring with it serious ROE issues.
If such a thing starts ROE will not really be a concern.
Nemo me impune lacesset,
"The chief aim of all government is to preserve the freedom of the citizen. His control over his person, his property, his movements, his business, his desires should be restrained only so far as the public welfare imperatively demands. The world is in more danger of being governed too much than too little.
It is the teaching of all history that liberty can only be preserved in small areas. Local self-government is, therefore, indispensable to liberty. A centralized and distant bureaucracy is the worst of all tyranny.
Taxation can justly be levied for no purpose other than to provide revenue for the support of the government. To tax one person, class or section to provide revenue for the benefit of another is none the less robbery because done under the form of law and called taxation."
John W. Davis, Democratic Presidential Candidate, 1924. Davis was one of the greatest trial and appellate lawyers in US history. He also served as the US Ambassador to the UK.
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Especially with the above listed missile system that is VERY cheap and easy to install and can also be air carried by choppers and spookies and aircraft. I personally cannot wait for them to try to close the straight and come out with their speed boats and watch them all blow skyhigh and then the mullahs will be left scratching their heads going "now what?"
Btw this is being considdered for the LCS as well as a larger main gun to improve their antiship role (as well as harpoon.
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My Tank is Fight
This message has been edited by Bota99 on Jul 16, 2012 11:12 PM
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For more than a decade, Iran has lavished a considerable share of its defense budget on its naval forces (which consist of both regular and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps units), believing that the Persian Gulf will be its front line in the event of a confrontation with the United States. Following a naval war-fighting doctrine that suits its revolutionary ethos, Iran has developed innovative, asymmetric naval warfare tactics that exploit its favorable geographic situation, build on its strengths, and target the vulnerabilities of its enemies.
Revolutionary Naval Warfare
During the Iran-Iraq War, the armed forces of Iranparticularly the Revolutionary Guards (or Pasdaran)developed a war-fighting doctrine in accord with the countrys revolutionary ideology. Based on Shiite religious concepts, the doctrine reflects Irans Alavi and Ashurai heritage. It draws inspiration from Ali (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad), who chose to avoid confrontation when challenged by Arab rulers of his time, and waited for twenty-four years before assuming the caliphate, as well as from the devotion of his son Hussein, who faced a superior enemy and died in battle on the plains of Karbala on the tenth day of Muharram in the year 680 (Ashura).
Revolutionary Shiite values such as stoic endurance and devotion to the cause are granted equal, if not superior, status to the traditional military principles of mission accomplishment and the achievement of a military objective. According to this doctrine, the mere act of fighting, exerting maximum effort, and fulfilling ones religious (and national) duty to the fullest is an end in itself. The result or outcome is of secondary importance. For adherents, martyrdom is a welcome prospect. A readiness to die, however, is not considered a substitute for lethality and effectiveness. On the contrary, the Iranian concept of Alavi/Ashurai warfare relies not just on spiritual commitment, but also on high-tech weaponry and innovative tacticsa combination employed to great effect on the ground in southern Lebanon by Irans protege, the Lebanese Shiite Hizballah, in its war with Israel this summer.
The most prominent expression of this doctrine was a series of naval battles with the U.S. Navy in April 1988. These took place during the final phases of the Iran-Iraq War, when hopelessly outclassed Iranian forces battled U.S. naval units in the Persian Gulf. Iran incurred heavy losses in the process. The experience taught Iran that large naval vessels are vulnerable to air and missile attacks, confirmed the efficacy of small boat operations, and spurred interest in missile-armed fast-attack craft. It also allowed Iran to expand the use of swarming tactics that form the foundation of its current approach to asymmetric naval warfare.
Naval Swarming Tactics
Swarming tactics are not new; they have been practiced by land armies for thousands of years. Such tactics require light, mobile forces with substantial striking power, capable of rapidly concentrating to attack an enemy from multiple directions and then rapidly dispersing.
Iranian naval swarming tactics focus on surprising and isolating the enemys forces and preventing their reinforcement or resupply, thereby shattering the enemys morale and will to fight. Iran has practiced both mass and dispersed swarming tactics. The former employs mass formations of hundreds of lightly armed and agile small boats that set off from different bases, then converge from different directions to attack a target or group of targets. The latter uses a small number of highly agile missile or torpedo attack craft that set off on their own, from geographically dispersed and concealed locations, and then converge to attack a single target or set of targets (such as a tanker convoy). The dispersed swarming tactic is much more difficult to detect and repel because the attacker never operates in mass formations.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the Pasdaran navy used mass swarming tactics; as a result, its forces proved vulnerable to attack by U.S. naval and air power. Because of this, it is unlikely that such tactics would be used for anything but diversionary attacks in the future. In todays Iranian naval forces, mass swarming tactics have largely given way to dispersed swarming.
Dispersed swarming tactics are most successful when attackers can elude detection through concealment and mobility, employ stand-off firepower, and use superior situational awareness (intelligence), enabling them to find and engage the enemy first. This accounts for a number of trends in Iranian naval force development in the past two decades. The first is the acquisition and development of small, fast weapons platformsparticularly lightly armed small boats and missile-armed fast-attack craft; extended- and long-range shore- and sea-based antiship missiles; midget and diesel attack submarines (for intelligence gathering, covert mine laying, naval special warfare, and conventional combat operations); low-signature reconnaissance and combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); and the adaptation of the Shahab-3 medium-range surface-to-surface missile armed with a cluster warhead reportedly carrying 1,400 bomblets, for use against enemy naval bases and carrier battle groups.
Iran has also sought to improve its ability to achieve surprise by employing low-observable technologies (such as radar-absorbent paints), strict communications discipline, stringent emissions control measures, passively or autonomously guided weapons systems (such as the Kowsar series of television-guided antiship missiles), and sophisticated command-and-control arrangements. To support its naval swarm tactics, Iran has encouraged decentralized decisionmaking and initiative, as well as autonomy and self-sufficiency among naval combat elements.
Wartime Operations
In wartime, Iranian naval forces would seek to close the Strait of Hormuz and destroy enemy forces bottled up in the Persian Gulf; therefore speed and surprise would be key. Iranian naval forces would seek to identify and attack the enemys centers of gravity as quickly as possible and inflict maximum losses before contact with subordinate units were lost as a result of enemy counterattacks. Geography is Irans ally. Because of the proximity of major shipping routes to the countrys largely mountainous 2,000-kilometer coastline, Iranian naval elements can sortie from their bases and attack enemy ships with little advance warning. Meanwhile, shore-based antiship missiles can engage targets almost anywhere in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. To achieve the latter capability, and to improve the survivability of its shore-based missile force, Iran has devoted significant efforts to extending the range of locally produced variants of a number of Chinese shore-based antiship missiles such as the HY-2 Silkworm and the C-802 (from 50 to 300 kilometers and from 120 to 170 kilometers, respectively). It has also introduced the use of helicopter-borne long-range antiship missiles.
To ensure that it can achieve surprise in the event of a crisis or war, Irans naval forces keep U.S. warships in the region under close visual, acoustic, and radar observation. The Iranian navy commanderRear Adm. Sajad Kouchaki, one of the architects of the countrys naval doctrinerecently claimed that Iranian submarines continually monitor U.S. naval movements, frequently at close range, and have even passed underneath American aircraft carriers and other warships undetected. Iranian UAVs also frequently shadow U.S. carrier battle groups in the area.
Conclusion
Current Iranian naval deployments are aimed at deterring an American attack andin the event of hostilitiesentrapping and destroying U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf, at which time U.S. regional bases would be targeted with rocket and missile strikes as well. Iranian naval forces would conduct simultaneous close-in and stand-off attacks, relying on swarming tactics developed and refined during the Iran-Iraq War and highlighted in recent naval exercises in the Persian Gulf. The performance of Lebanese Hizballah guerrillas, who used similar tactics against much larger and more powerful Israeli ground forces in southern Lebanon last summer, provides some insight into what the U.S. Navy should expect in the event of a confrontation with Iran in the Persian Gulf.
Fariborz Haghshenass is an expert on the Iranian military.
"The chief aim of all government is to preserve the freedom of the citizen. His control over his person, his property, his movements, his business, his desires should be restrained only so far as the public welfare imperatively demands. The world is in more danger of being governed too much than too little.
It is the teaching of all history that liberty can only be preserved in small areas. Local self-government is, therefore, indispensable to liberty. A centralized and distant bureaucracy is the worst of all tyranny.
Taxation can justly be levied for no purpose other than to provide revenue for the support of the government. To tax one person, class or section to provide revenue for the benefit of another is none the less robbery because done under the form of law and called taxation."
John W. Davis, Democratic Presidential Candidate, 1924. Davis was one of the greatest trial and appellate lawyers in US history. He also served as the US Ambassador to the UK.
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But that's just the problem, swarm attacks are part of the threat. Lots of speedboats against warships is one thing, but what about warships that are threatened by sub-surface contacts, as well as getting EW hits off land and sea based anti shipping missiles systems? They'd be operating In one of the busiest sea spaces in the world, and chances are within range of Iranian SAM systems. Command and control is hard enough in any multi threat environment, in the Gulf it's a massive challenge. I wouldn't be so confident of any such battle just being about swatting away speedboats at distance.
ROE is always an issue, ripple firing fire and forget missiles into areas where you know there are non combatants is a big move.
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