U.S. Has Gunships Ready to Deliver on Trump’s Warning to Iran
- Capabilities to hit Iranian speedboats were recently bolstered
- AC-130 gunships and Apache helicopters add new firepower
An AC-130 flying gunship
Photographer: USAF/Getty Images
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Even before President Donald Trump’s vow to “shoot down” Iranian speedboats if they harass American ships in international waters, the U.S. Navy was bolstering its ability to call in AC-130 gunships and Apache attack helicopters to defend its presence in the Persian Gulf.
A practice run for the new tactics on April 15 drew 11 gunboats from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that crossed the bows and sterns of American vessels at close range. And that prompted Trump’s tweet on April 22 saying he’d “instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.”