U.S. Central Command has said that Iranian naval vessels operating in the Gulf of Oman have been eliminated over the past two days, posting imagery showing weapons striking Iranian ships.
In a social media statement, CENTCOM wrote: “Two days ago, the Iranian regime had 11 ships in the Gulf of Oman, today they have ZERO.” The post was accompanied by video footage showing an impact on a vessel, though the command did not provide further operational detail on the nature of the strikes or the specific units involved.
CENTCOM added: “The Iranian regime has harassed and attacked international shipping in the Gulf of Oman for decades. Those days are over.”
The Gulf of Oman is a strategically significant waterway linking the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global energy supplies. Iranian naval forces, including units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, have maintained a regular presence in the region, often operating fast attack craft, patrol boats and support vessels.
The footage released by CENTCOM shows precision strikes against ships underway or manoeuvring at sea. However, the command has not confirmed the types of munitions used and there has been no immediate public response from Iranian authorities regarding the claim.
In its statement, CENTCOM gave the broader strategic context, saying: “Freedom of maritime navigation has underpinned American and global economic prosperity for more than 80 years. U.S. forces will continue to defend it.”
The message is longstanding U.S. policy on naval operations in the region as necessary to protect commercial shipping and maintain open sea lanes.
Independent verification of the current status of Iranian naval forces in the Gulf of Oman has not yet been made public.
CENTCOM has also previously stated that an Iranian drone carrier, identified as the Shahid Bagheri, was struck during the opening phase of operations. The vessel was a converted commercial ship adapted to support unmanned aerial systems at sea, providing Iran with a platform for launching and recovering drones beyond its immediate coastline.
According to U.S. statements issued earlier in the week, the ship was hit within hours of the launch of Operation Epic Fury. While full details of the engagement have not been released, American officials described the strike as targeting a platform used to project Iranian drone capability into regional waters.
The loss of the drone carrier would represent a notable setback for Iran’s efforts to expand its asymmetric capabilities. Such vessels are intended to extend surveillance and strike range using unmanned systems, offering flexibility without relying on traditional large-deck aircraft carriers.
Truly Epic Fury has been a great success then 🤦♂️
🫡🇺🇸
Does anyone know what Americas war aims are? I thought it was regime change and getting rid of Irans nuclear program but apparently it’s sinking their “navy”.
I wonder if they sank the thousands of small bots the IRG is using to intercept tankers or stopped any of the ships carrying mines.
Or did they just go after the Facebook meme targets because the Secretary of war thought it would look good in a TIK Tok video.
American Aims are all based around Killing.
That’s pretty much It I think.
Why the fcuk are you asking dumb stupid questions like this? Can’t you find something to cut and paste?
Mean while we can not shoot down a slow prop driven drone as its too expensive and we have limited missiles, what joke our armed forces are, no guns to shoot at drones just £ million misilles and not lot of them. Struggle strike back as gave most Storm Shadow missiles away. And we only have one cruse missile armed sub working and is in Oz, we are being made to look stupid.
We still have plenty of Storm Shadow which can be fired from Typhoon.
One of the issues with Akratori is its proximity to civilian areas. Cyprus itself has quite decent air defences which may well have been held so as let RAF lead not to repeat the three downed F15s.
But Phalanx and palletised 30mm should have been a thing there.
You can see after what happened in Kuwait yesterday with 3 F15’s being shot down why the RAF and any major airforce tends to be reluctant to have modern air defences on an airbase on a hir trigger looking for drones.
Just look at the USS Gettysburg incident in the Red Sea last year.
Fact is Britain has a type 45 destroyer available. It has half a dozen Sky Sabre batteries available and it has numerous Star streak systems available. These systems were not deployed to Cyprus for reasons unknown but it’s certainly was not because they didn’t exist and could not be used.
The drone that went to Cyprus was fired from Lebanon and for all we know was little more than a remote controlled airplane. These systems can do almost zero damage to an airbase. Active air defence is likely to be much more dangerous.
This is what I posted on NL 30mins ago.
The Cypriots actually do have decent AAW system but they were almost certainly on hold to give RAF primacy for reasons you outline.
That still doesn’t resolve why phalanx, as used in Afghanistan, or palletised 30mm under RAF control are not deployed.
Even a small drone can, by chance, hit a parked frame and write it off.
Absolute crap. You know nothing about RAF air defence systems or proceedures at British airbases whatsoever.
we have none of those two things, may be a few guns and an AWAC’s aircraft might be handy, but we have none. Sky Sabre is there but its costs a lot to shoot wooden prop drones down, when few 3/35 mm shells can do the job if we had them.
we do not have either, not any AWAC’s just Sky Sabre and a few harsh words. Might be lucky and hit one with GPMG thats about all we have its pathetic
And yet we shot down a bunch of drones in the gulf yesterday.
how much did that cost us, £4 million a missile, we can do that for how long before we run out of missile or we could have a gun based air defence like most of NATO, it cost too mush to use limited missiles. And an AWAC’s aircraft might of been a help if we had one?. We will run out of missles before Iran runs out of wooden drones.
Ah a wonderful article to wake up to
So much for the Ayatollahs mighty speedboat fleet 😄
Thing is that they might have been of use in a grey zone scenario – but things don’t stay very grey if you start attacking sovereign things!
So they were paper tigers IRL.
A threat that could be taken out at will by any western power.
OT
Given the price rise in gas and certain Gulf States saying they are suspending production when they are scheduled to supply a lot of our future gas – North Sea exploitation U-turn anyone?