Periscope
16 NEWSWEEK.COM
WCould the U.S. defeat Iran’s navy? Don’t be so sure ar Game in the Gulf
like assault of fast attack craft that 2015 book, finished off much of what remained, using missiles and suicide charges.ted that Van Riper’s forces had “sunk by Thinking Like the Enemycarrier group. He then led a guerrilla- my damn Navy” and had inflicted “an As Micah Zenko recounted in his Red Team: How to Succeed , Bell admit-
extremely high rate of attrition, and a disaster, from which we all learned a great lesson.”however, the Pentagon’s control team overseeing the exercise brought the fallen back to life and artificially con-strained the Red Team’s abilities to the point that it could not possibly Rather than concede the losses,extremely deadly for the U.S. Navy.mago show that a maritime matchup to asymwar games conducted nearly 17 years try has a spotty record. Infamagainst Iran would likely prove to be ilitary power, but when it comcited as the world’s foremthe united states is widely metrical warfare, the counous ost es -
activity off its shores. The MTehran emwhile, prepared to com-Eastern nation, mreports from U.S. officials that Iran was allegedly pursuing new missile longtimmemA new wave of tension between orate the United e foes Werged in early Mashington and ean- ay with iddle
States’ decision a year ago to pull out from the 2015 nuclear deal by stepping back from its own commitments to the historic agreement. Among the alleged threats were satellite photographs purport-ing to show small traditional sailing boats, known as dhows, being fitted
with cruise missiles.Nations, Mrejected such “fake intelligence” as a text for conflict—mfire missiles out of small boats.” He CBS News on Mdeliberate attempt to set up the preissed these assessmIran’s amajid Takht Ravanchi, disbassador to the United ay 17 that “we do not not unlike the false ents, telling --
claims that led up to the 2003 inva-sion of Iraq.conventional navy and the navy of the elite Revolutionary Guard—Iran’s two maritime forces—its do,fleet of fast attack craft that it claims however, maintain a missile-equipped could take out even the most advanced U.S. warships, although some experts and officials have dismissed the capa-bilities of such assets. In a mixed com-puter and live-fire simulation by the United States in 2002, a “Red Team” armed with vessels and strategies
not unlike those of Iran pummeled the point that the Pentagon needed to step in to ensure a friendly victory.a “Blue Team” representing the U.S. to war with Iraq in 2002, after it accused The U.S. was already on the path to the country of possess-ing weapons of mdestruction and threatass -
mantled Joint Forces Command con-to August 15 that year, the since-disducted a $250 million exercise known as Mthe Blue Team, led by Army General illennial Challenge that pitted through missile activity groups. Fromening regional stability and support for militant July 24 -
Burwell B. Bell and representing the representing an oil-rich Persian Gulf nation, such as Iran or Iraq. gunned by a much more technolog-ically advanced adversary, Van Riper United States, against the Red Team, led by retired Mtenant General Paul Van Riper and Despite being significantly out-arine Corps Lieu-
launched a msalvo that overwhelmTeam’s Aegis Ballistic MSystem radars, sinking a significant portion of the equivalent of a strike assive cruise missile Defense ed the Blue issileTHOMAS O’CONNOR @ShaolinTomBY
IRAN
JUNE 07, 2019