Video shows Iranian Aircraft buzz U.S. Navy Destroyer, warn it to leave exercise area in Strait of Hormuz

Footage shows Iranian Naval Aviation Fokker 27 warn a U.S. Navy destroyer to leave training area

Several aircraft belonging to the the Iranian Air Force, Navy and Army are currently taking part in Joint Exercise “Mohammad Rasullollah.”

During the drills, Tehran’s maritime patrol aircraft overflying the Strait of Hormuz and Sea of Oman have had some close encounters with U.S. Navy and UAE vessels operating in the same waters.

According to Iranian defense expert Babak Taghvaee, a very well-known author of several publications about the Iranian air forces and a regular contributor to some of the most read aviation magazines, the first such encounters occurred on Dec. 25 and 26 when the foreign vessels were spotted by an IRIAF (Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force) P-3F serialled 5-8706.

On Dec. 28, an Iranian Naval Aviation’s Fokker 27-400M, serialled 5-2601, carrying journalists “buzzed” the U.S. Navy’s USS Gridley (DDG-101), a Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. Footage of the flybys conducted by the Iranian plane close to the American warship including radio communications was later released by FARS News Agency.

Similar encounters occur quite frequently in those waters and are almost routine: you can find several images showing Iranian, Russian or U.S. maritime patrol aircraft overflying foreign ships in the high seas all around the world.

Furthermore, foreign warships cross Iranian territorial waters in the Straits of Hormuz when entering the Persian Gulf, that’s why they are often “inspected” by Iranian Air Force and Navy planes.

Still, the footage in this post is particularly interesting as it is one of the few (if not the only) to let you hear the (quite polite) messages exchanged between the Iranian patrol aircraft and the U.S. warship.

H/T to Babak Tagvaee and ACIG.info for the heads-up. Footage, FARS via B. Tagvaee.

 

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

8 Comments

  1. President Obama sure to send a TERSELY worded note to Iran!! Period. Thank goodness US doesn’t have a Cowboy Pres anymore!!! F-27…..I flew on one of those about 30 years ago in Burma. Burma Air. RGN-MDL-RGN.

  2. We haven;t learned anything from the USS Stark event. The US ship could not have protected itself given how close the Iranian aircraft was flying. Another Obama “let’s be friends with everyone” approach which will cost lives juts like the death of our ambassador to Lybia…

    • Protected itself from what, exactly? US ships always have this suicidal tendency to run into military training zones to both gain intel and be used as a sacrificial chicken to start another war.

  3. what i notice was that U.S. Navy request from Iranian to keep their distance by moving away, while Iranian get even closer to the point they almost flown above the ship at very low altitude.
    then Iranian told the ship to move away from due to their course was toward Iranian exercise location, then u see the ship making 100 degree turn if not more.

  4. Nothing out of the ordinary here – just a polite request to stay out of the training area where Iranians are shooting live missiles, torpedoes and bombs. There was absolutely no need for any aggression from either side – professionals doing their job.

    • In ordinary situation yes but when US navy breaks in to the training area on purpose to show that who’s the superpower and that Iran is no match for America and in return Iranian army shows no fear and gives the us navy warning to exit the training area and learns her some manner (to have respect for other countries governments), so that matters.
      America was never and well never be the chief of the global village.

Comments are closed.