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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Navy releases video of Iranian warship harassing US Coast Guard ship in Persian Gulf

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

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On Saturday, the U.S. Navy announced that a group of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) speedboats and a larger support vessel swarmed two U.S. Coast Guard vessels on April 2, maneuvering within 70 yards of the U.S. vessels in what the U.S. Navy called “unsafe and unprofessional” maneuvers.

The Iranian vessels reportedly harassed the U.S. vessels for around three hours, all while ignoring warnings blared from the U.S. vessels. The Navy has since released a video of part of the encounter, showing the larger IRGC vessel the Shahid Nazeri, designated by the U.S. as the Harth 55, cutting in front of the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Monomoy (WPB 1326).

In the video, the Harth 55 can be seen sailing just in front of the Monomoy’s bow. The Iranian ship’s actions forced the U.S. ship to conduct a defensive maneuver to avoid a collision.

The incident went unreported for nearly a month before U.S. Navy officials disclosed the incident in an April 24 press release. U.S. Navy officials said three Iranian fast attack crafts and the larger 180-foot Harth 55 swarmed around the Monomoy and another Coast Guard cutter, the USCGC Wrangell (WPB-1332) as they patrolled international waters in the Persian Gulf as part of a routine maritime security patrol.

The Navy released additional photos of the Harth 55 cutting in front of the Coast Guard ship.

Iran has used similar swarm boat methods in the past to harass U.S. ships. In April of 2020, after 11 Iranian gunboats swarmed around six U.S. warships, then-President Donald Trump said he had instructed the U.S. Navy to fire on Iranian gunboats “if they harass our ships at sea.” Following Trump’s warnings, Iran unveiled 112 more weaponized speedboats and vowed to continue to make U.S. warships “sense us even more.”

This latest incident was the first time Iran’s Harth 55 vessel was used as part of the swarm boat tactics. Past incidents have only seen Iran’s smaller speedboats taking part in the harassing maneuvers around U.S. ships. The Harth 55 is a high-speed catamaran-like vessel the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence has classed as a support ship. According to Iran’s Fars News, the vessel can carry up to 100 troops and has room on its deck for a helicopter landing pad.

The USCGC Monomoy and the USCGC Wrangell are deployed in the Persian Gulf as part of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command’s Task Force 55, which is comprised of both U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard patrol vessels.

The April 2 incident came on the same day President Joe Biden’s administration announced it would begin indirect talks with Iran regarding returning the U.S. to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

Photo: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) Harth 55, left, conducted an unsafe and unprofessional action by crossing the bow of the Coast Guard patrol boat USCGC Monomoy (WPB 1326), right. (U.S. Navy photo)

Link: https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/04/navy-releases-video-of-iranian-warship-harassing-us-coast-guard-ship-in-persian-gulf/

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