Iran Loves This: The Royal Navy Doesn’t Have Enough Ships to Patrol Persian Gulf
The Royal Navy plans briefly to double its number of warships in the Persian Gulf following an attempted attack by Iranian forces on a British oil tanker on June 20, 2019.
But the temporary increase in British warships in the region, from one to two, underscores just how few ships the Royal Navy can deploy even in an emergency.
Iranian boats tried to “impede” the British oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, the BBC reported. HMS Montrose, a Type 23 frigate, “was forced to move between the three boats and the tanker,” according to the BBC.
Far-left activist conference at teachers union HQ raises classroom concerns
California man admits targeting 3 Subway restaurants for robberies in less than a week, FBI says
Pratt takes Walz to task in scathing X post over pardoned child rapist: ‘Have your hard drives checked’
US forest service workers kidnapped, ziptied for hours by father-son duo: California AG
New Poll Suggests Jewish Americans Feel Isolated As Antisemitism Grows
$225,000,000 In ‘Hideous’ Fraud Schemes Found Across US Schools, Report Alleges
Turns Out Voters Actually Favor Reason Over Rage Bait. Go Figure
‘The Invite’ with Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogen is full of awful, immoral assumptions
How China stole voter registration from 220 million US citizens, according to declassified materials
Mike Waltz, Tim Tebow launch effort to combat online child exploitation: ‘It’s happening in their backyard’
The ‘Little House’ remake is bland, boring, and politically correct
House Republicans aim to turn Democratic civil war into midterm weapon
John Fetterman threads the needle after threat to abandon Democrats
Will ‘Peak Woke social media posts haunt Texas Democrat Talarico’s Senate bid?
WATCH: House Dems dodge questions on socialist agenda that threatens to abolish key institutions
The British government claimed the attacking boats belonged to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps militia. The IRGC also allegedly was behind several recent bomb attacks targeting oil tankers in the Gulf and surrounding waters.
Tensions have escalated in the Middle East following U.S. president Donald Trump decision unilaterally to withdraw the United States from the 2015 deal limiting Iran’s nuclear program. After Trump restored economic sanctions, Tehran resumed stockpiling uranium.
The July 2019 tanker incident compelled the Royal Navy to accelerate by several weeks a planned deployment to the Gulf by the Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan. Montrose and Duncan together will patrol the Persian Gulf before Montrose returns to U.K. waters for maintenance.
Duncan sailed south through the Bosphorus on July 13, 2019. The destroyer had been in the Black Sea region for NATO exercises.
