Yemen Crisis/Conflict & the "Decisive Storm" Coalition

shen

Senior Member
...
I would like to see a icture in daylight after the attack to be able to assess the damage. If the video shown is the actual video, I would say that it was a C-802 type missile and the damage was pretty severe...

my only disagreement is that HSV-2 and Hanit from years back were hit with a C-802 size missile. As far as I know, there is not photographic proof that Hezbollah, Hothies or other Iranian allied groups are in possession of C-802 class missiles. What we seen photos of, from that merchant ship intercepted by the Israelis, are Kowsar size missiles. That's a missile with about 30kg warhead, hardly in the same class as C-802. It also doesn't make sense for Iran to transfer large, liquid fueled missiles such as C-802 to allies without OTH targeting capability when a smaller solid fueled missile such as Kowsar can be more easily transported and concealed.
 

SinoSoldier

Colonel

It seems that the lion's share of the damage was from the subsequent fires brought forth by the missile impact.

Fortunately, the vessel does not show significant physical trauma from the missile's kinetic energy or warhead, and hence most of the crew probably did survive and abandon the ship. It's simply unfortunate that the Swift had a large amount of aluminum-based metal alloys within her hull.

Word is that she is being towed for repairs.
 

B.I.B.

Captain
Some sources reported the use of aluminium as part of the super structure.

The Sheffield wasn't made of Aluminium, it's a common myth.


Yup It seems you are quite right to futher emhasise the point
from world Naval Ships Forum
uite. Aside from anything else, Capt Salt's report of decking "glowing white hot" is a giveaway. As anyone with experience of aluminium welding will tell you, it doesn't glow when it gets near melting point, it simply melts. Looks a lot like mercury once liquid.

As such, reports of the ship's structure glowing from the heat of the fire tells you that the plates concerned must have been steel.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Aftermath of the missile hit:
View attachment 32817
That is exactly what I have been waiting for.

Clearly took a serious hit to the bridge...and I bet a lot of their officers/folks on duty at the time...were killed there.

I had read where members of the Royal Family were aboard and some killed.

This vessel is not a combatant. It is fast, it is neat looking, but to have it there anywhere near shore with an active anti-missile escort was foolish.

...and they paid the price.

4-jpg.32820
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
That ship is totalled. Looks like the missile hit it in the face at what looks like a 45 degree angle, and then sliced right through the ship, meaning most of the explosive force, and subsequent fires were largely focused within the core of the ship.

View attachment 32818



ATTACH]

In that picture, you can see what looks like the exit wound amidships on the port side.

An aero shot will probably show a huge gaping hole in the middle of the bridge area where the missile warhead would have detonated.

The only thing they will do with it once they get it to shore is one scrap it.

It's the trimaran design that kept her afloat at all.

If it was a conventional design, the many gaping holes in her would have flooded, causing her to list and sink.

The only relevance to the size of the missile would be the size of the initial blast, which would massively impact on the number of survivors.

A small missile would probably have given most of the crew and passengers time to get to the lifeboats. A C802 class missile, going off right in the heart of the ship like that would probably have wiped out most of the crew and passengers with the initial blast.

Anyone got internal layout cut out diagrams of the ship?

With it being designed for cargo handling, I'm picturing a large, open central cargo area. The bridge also looks to be a massive, spacious design taking up most of that deck.

If that was the case, a massive AShM warhead going off in the middle of that would mean anyone in those areas would have minimal protection from the blast and shockwaves, so survival chances would have been pretty poor.
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
The ship strike story has finally been reported by the BBC!
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The most striking part of it, is just how it avoids actually telling you anything remotely useful.
I do love the idea of a ship in Battleship grey, with military style markings and with a file photograph of being tested by the US Navy as "Civilian".

As I said, the western media was bought and paid for. They imposed a media blackout on this story for days, and this is what took them so long to come up with?!

That BBC piece would have done Saddam's old comical Ali proud.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
...and the Yemis. What can you say?

They had a large, sleek, fancy looking ship. I am sue the Royual family was impressed and though to somehow dhow off.

Where were the Saudis and their capable FFGs/Escorts?

Why was this ship close enough to shore like this...and then at night you can see that some of the small boats taking pictures gt in retty close.

Now they are calling n US ships to some in and defend them. I will tell you personally I am nit happy about it and am speaking to people I know, my own representatives as well as people I know in the services.

This is another part of Hillary's misbegotten Arab Spring which has frozen solid and gone to hel in a hand basket.

Assad was causing us n problem and Both Bush's and even Clinton worked with them.

Same with Egypt.

We even had Qadafi cowed to the point of wanting no more trouble. Then along comes Obama and Hillary and they have made a living hel out of the whole Middle East.

IMHO, and pardon my rant...we have no business helping the Saudis in Yemen. If they cannot handle the rebels there who are funded from afar by Iran...then they should try and negotiate a deal to get things stable again....not drag our warships into such a conflict with them.

Anyhow, that's my opinion.

The Yemenis did not know the leat thing about the ship they had and their allies, the ASaudies gave them no cover and now it has been...for al intents and purposes destroyed. They should ahbve learned from the ISraeli experience when they underestimated what missiles were available to these types of rebels over in Lebvannn when their corvette which was designed to handle it was parked with the system off in a combat zne because they underestimated their enemy.

The Yeminis and the Saudis have now done the same thing.

Anyhow, it is celear that they need the right type of force t go in there and clear the coautal areas near the straits of ths type of thing...but t do that they need the Speical forcses and the backing of that forces government to go make deals with the tribes...like what Petraeus did in the surge in Iraq...before Obama negated it all and left Iraq vulnerable to give birth to ISIS during their assinine "Arab Spring."

Anyhow...enuugh of my rant. I know it is getting political and I will probably come back in and delte it and responses to it tomrrow.

Right now I' m jous PO'ed about the whole thing.
 
That is exactly what I have been waiting for.

...
found this (I don't know the source which is
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):
Crew members of UAE ship attacked by Houthis tell of terrifying raid
Oleksandr Lukianov was in his cot aboard the Swift when a loud blast from a higher deck startled him from his slumber.

Before the Ukrainian could speculate on the cause, the ship tilted sharply to one side, tossing him to the ground as a steel wardrobe and other furniture collapsed around him in the darkness.

It is possible Mr Lukianov, 31, lost consciousness because the next thing he remembers is being shaken awake by his shipmates.

"They said ‘Oleks, wake up, wake up’," he said. "‘Oleks, Oleks, they are shooting’."

The crew of 24 young men on the ship – owned by the UAE’s National Marine Dredging Company and used to ferry humanitarian aid to Yemen – was attacked by Houthi rebels while they slept.

The ship was sailing through the Bab Al Mandeb Strait when its observation tower was destroyed in what crew members said was a missile strike.

When Mr Lukianov ran from his room, he could see the bridge "was completely destroyed by fire".

He added: "We heard some shooting, but we could not understand from which side. There was some noise but we could not understand from which side they were moving.

"The messroom was completely destroyed. We were afraid because if you don’t die from fire, you could die from a bullet."

Michal Czubakowski, the Polish first officer, said most of the crew were in their rooms when the ship was attacked at about 3am. Three of them were working on the observation deck and two were in the engine room.

"First impression for everybody was just a collision with another ship because nobody expects such a thing," said Mr Czubakowski, 34.

"But suddenly there was an alarm, and the duty engineer and the second mate were running around and they were just screaming that we were hit by a rocket."

The force from the blast pushed the vessel to the side, causing furniture and storage cabinets to topple, in some cases injuring the crew.

The men tried to help one another while escaping from their rooms and evading gunfire, said Mr Czubakowski. Most of the doors had been blocked by fallen furniture or ceilings.

"We were trying to help each other, just going door to door to check if somebody was inside," he said.

Shailendra Kumar, an Indian who sustained facial injuries from the falling furniture, said he ran outside after hearing the blast and saw some colleagues had been bloodied in the commotion.

As he saw flames shooting from the front of the ship, he and others ran towards the back and saw people firing from a small boat. The gunfire continued for half an hour, said Mr Kumar, 33.

"I was very scared and I laid down on the floor," he added.

After the shooting stopped, the crew of the Swift set out to launch a lifeboat as they waited for rescue. The UAE Navy and Coastguard arrived about an hour or two after the missile strike.

Mr Kumar was visibly shaken on Tuesday as he spoke about the ordeal. He and his crewmates are recovering in the UAE, where they have been given medical care, clean clothes and shelter.

"I was thinking that we were going to lose our lives," said the father of two. "It was very sad. We never thought that we would come back again."
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
found this (I don't know the source which is
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):
Crew members of UAE ship attacked by Houthis tell of terrifying raid
Best description yet...and sounds most true.

While the Yemin government says this:

Yemen said:
The military on Saturday confirmed that one of its vessels was involved in an ‘incident’ and added that none of the crew had been hurt while omitting information on whether the vessel sank or not.

The pictures above tell us the troy.

Anyone on that bridge was killed or terribly injured.

...and now there are unconfirmed reports that members of the Emirati royal family were aboard and some of them my have died.

The sailor's report above that you provided, Jura, sounds more accurate than anything else so far.

It sounds like a coordinated attack in the straits. Missile fire followed up by small boats with armed rebels shooting at the boat and any survivors.

Why in the heck was the Yemen navy and coast guard an hour away?

Clearly their own intelligence is worthless. This would be a high value target for the rebels and they just proved it.
 
Last edited:
I think in this:
...

Why in the heck was the Yemen navy and coast guard an hour away?

Clearly their own intelligence is worthless. This would be a high value target for the rebels and they just proved it.
you assumed
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to be loyal to Mr. Hadi ... but is it??

(I of course don't imply the Yemeni Navy carried out this attack, actually if they had fired a salvo of those five-thousand-pounds-weighing Russian AShMs carrying some one-thousand-pound warhead, the Swift would've been sent to the bottom ... swiftly)
 
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