IRAN WAR UPDATE! U.S. Warships Clash with Iranian Fast Attack Boats in Strait of Hormuz
A fast attack boat is circling a cargo ship in the straight of Hormuz.
And it’s not there to talk.
The ship has no weapons, no escort, no way out.
The captain grabs the radio.
Hands steady, voice steady, emergency channel by the book.
He follows procedure because right now procedure is all he has.
Then a US warship shows up and the situation turns in seconds.
Thousands of miles from home, the McFall receives the distress call CIC coordinates.
Now, no briefing, no explanation needed.
The radar operators already have the contact.
The officer of the deck is already on the phone.
Engines are already spooling up.
The McFall heels over and changes course.
30 knots.
Bow cutting into the Gulf.
Spray breaking white off the hull.
On deck, the gun crews don’t wait for an order.
They move.
The MK38 Mod 1.
The gunner drops behind the handles, exposed to the wind, the spray, everything.
Rounds are fed.
The belt locks in.
Manual.
Eyes on the water.
Police 25.
The Mod 3 turret swings on its own.
EOIR dome already scanning.
Already looking for the contact.
25 mm loaded.
Ready to fire.
The MK38 Mod 1 is a manually operated 25mm chain gun, 180 rounds per minute, effective range 2,000 m.
The gunner on deck has a simple optical sight and a trigger.
No sensors, no stabilization, just his hands and his eyes.
The Mod 3 is the opposite.
Fully remote controlled with an EOIR sensor suite that tracks targets day or night, feeding data to the gunner inside the CIC.
One gunner exposed, one gunner protected, both firing the same round.
Two MH60R Seah Hawk helicopters lift off the McFall’s deck.
The Seahawk, a multi-m missission naval helicopter capable of anti-surface warfare, search and rescue, and electronic surveillance, drops low over the water, rotors pounding the air.
The MH60R is the Navy’s primary airborne anti-surface and anti-ubmarine platform.
It carries Hellfire missiles, torpedoes, and a forward-looking infrared radar that can detect a fast boat from 50 mi away.
Each helicopter can stay airborne for 4 hours before refueling.
Today, they will push that limit.
Their mission, find the fast boats.
They spread out north, south.
The radar pods sweep.
The sauna boys sit ready.
Night over the straight.
The McFall maintains speed.
No lights except the glow inside the CIC.
The MK38 Mod 3’s thermal camera sees in the dark.
It doesn’t need the sun.
On the screen, the water is a cold blue gray, and everything that moves stands out.
The Mod 3’s EOIR sensor is the same technology used on F-35 fighters.
It can detect a small boat from 8 km at night, classify it as hostile, and track it automatically while the gunner waits for the order to fire.
The system can engage targets while the ship maneuvers at full speed.
The radar blip appears.
Small, fast, closing.
The contact is designated hostile.
The Mod 3 acquires first.
The gunner inside presses the trigger.
25 mm rounds cross the water in under a second.
Tracer fire lights the path.
The Mod One opens up a moment later.
The gunner on deck, adding his fire.
Short bursts, controlled, precise.
The MK38 fires the M792 high explosive incendiary round designed to punch through small boat holes and ignite fuel tanks.
At 1,100 m/s, the round reaches the target before the gunner hears the report.
What the gunner sees first is the impact.
Water erupting, hole disintegrating, the target gone.
The sun rises over the straight of Hormuz.
On deck, the MK38 Mod 1 gunner is back at his post, scanning.
The Mod 3’s sensor dome tracks anything that moves.
The thermal feed is still running.
The radars are still sweeping.
The ship hasn’t relaxed.
Nobody has used that word.
As of this week, the McFall is one of six destroyers operating in the Persian Gulf, part of a significant US naval presence assembled to keep the straight open and commercial traffic moving.
This is not a rotation.
This is a sustained deployment.
The crew understands that they don’t complain about it.
Alert is not a posture here.
It is a state of being.
The MH60R Seahawks spin up.
Rotors beat the morning air.
One turns north, one turns south.
The straight is quiet, but quiet doesn’t mean empty.
These crews have learned that lesson.
They fly low.
Sensors sweeping, eyes scanning.
On the McFall’s bridge, the radar operator calls out.
Contact bearing 270.
Fast moving, small, closing.
The alarm sounds.
On deck, the MK38 Mod 1 gunner locks in.
He leans into the weapon.
His hands are steady.
They have been steady through a long night and a longer morning.
The Mod 1 has no power assistance.
The gunner must physically traverse the weapon using shoulder pressure against a U-shaped shoulder stock.
It’s crude compared to the Mod 3, but in the hands of a trained marine, it is just as deadly.
The Mod 3 turret swings toward the contact, its gun elevating, sensor dome fixed.
The fast boat emerges from the haze, low on the water, engines at 40 knots.
It weaves, it pushes harder.
Iranian fast attack boats are usually 10 to 15 m long, armed with machine guns and rocket launchers.
Their tactics are asymmetric.
Speed, numbers, and the element of surprise.
They rely on closing the distance before the target can respond.
Tonight, they didn’t close fast enough.
The Mod 3 fires first.
25mm rounds walk toward the target.
Short controlled bursts.
The mod one follows.
The marine on deck adds his fire.
Precise, not panicked.
This is training executed at range.
The fast boat weaves again.
The rounds are accurate.
Hole penetrations.
Engines out.
The boat slows then stops.
The MK38s fall silent.
The crew watches.
No second contact.
No second wave.
The helicopter circle back and confirm the wreckage.
The McFall holds its course.
On deck, the marine releases his grip on the Mod One.
His hands are steady.
His eyes don’t leave the water.
They never will.
Not while they’re in this straight.
The Mod 3’s sensor dome continues its slow scan.
The CIC is quiet.
The radar operators log the contact, the time, the outcome.
Sentcom has made clear the US will not tolerate high-speed boat approaches on a collision course with US military vessels.
That policy was enforced tonight.
It will be enforced tomorrow.
The rules of engagement are clear.
A fast boat approaching at high speed with no communication, no identification, no response to warnings.
That is a hostile act.
The McFall’s crew followed the doctrine.
They identified, they tracked, they warned, and when the contact closed inside the threshold, they fired.
That is how naval engagement works in the 21st century.
This is not the first time this crew has done this.
It will not be the last.
No one on this ship needs to say that out loud.
They already know.
The McFall continues its patrol.
21 mi at its narrowest.
Nearly onethird of global oil supply depends on it.
The threat has been neutralized.
But out here, neutralized doesn’t mean finished.
A crew of sailors aboard an Arley Burke class destroyer.
Weapons loaded, radars sweeping, eyes on the water, ready to move, ready to fire the moment the call comes in.
They didn’t ask for this deployment.
They didn’t ask for this mission.
They showed up, manned their stations, and did what the Navy trained them to do.
That’s enough.
That’s always been enough.
