Merchant Ships as Missile Platforms

In the weeks preceding and following March 19^th 2003, the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the USNS Guadalupe T-AO 200 was engaged in underway replenishment operations of USS and Coalition Warships in the North Red Sea.[1] Rumor aboard ship was our dear friends, the Saudis, refused to permit us to take on product in the Port of Jiddah, so we were forced to make the lengthy journey to the Port of Fujairah[2] in the United Arab Emirates. Sailing southbound in the Red Sea, through the Bab el Mandeb strait between Yemen and Ethiopia, we transited the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea into the Gulf of Oman. Our escort through Bab el Mandeb was generally a USS Frigate. Being able to see both Yemen and Ethiopia during the transits brought home the reality of what an easy target we were for the Yemenis, who are armed with North Korean SCUD missiles.[3] It is not difficult to imagine how these rogue states can choke off the gulfs and seas in this region, or strike U.S. assets. According to www.globalsecurity.org:

"The Iranian Navy is putting in place a multi-layered framework comprised of conventional and asymmetrical subsurface, surface, and airborne systems which can impact open access to Arabian Gulf shipping lanes."[4]

The challenge we face with Iranian naval capabilities in this region is in its infancy. globalsecurity.org references construction of thousand-ton 289-foot missile-equipped destroyers, locally built craft with "rocket launchers", and probable launching by now of the 350-Ton missile launcher frigate Sina.[5] These Iranian assets present a clear and present danger to merchant and war ships transiting the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Red Sea.

On October 21^st 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced during a question and answer session at a press conference in Russia that a "rogue state" had successfully tested the ship-based launch of a ballistic missile.^[6]