Iran Fires Rockets Near US Navy Aircraft Carrier in Persian Gulf

The rockets were not fired at the warships, but Iranian vessels were conducting a test on December 26 and a US aircraft carrier came within 1,500 yards of being hit by a rocket, U.S officials said.

The official called the incident “certainly unnecessarily provocative” and “unsafe”.

The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) operates in the Arabian Sea conducting maritime security operations in this U.S. Navy photo taken April 21, 2015. Raines said at no time did the Truman stray into Iranian territorial waters.

There were no direct communications between United States and Iranian navies.

According to Agence France Presse, a French frigate and the USS Bulkeley destroyer were also in the area.

Several Revolutionary Guard vessels fired the rockets “in close proximity” of the warships and nearby merchant traffic “after providing only 23 minutes of advance notification”, said Navy Commander Kyle Raines, spokesman for the U.S. Central Command.

The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is deployed in the US 5th Fleet area of operations supporting OIR, strike operations in Iraq and Syria, maritime security operations, and theater security cooperation efforts in the region. More recently, in 2008, US and Iranian forces had a standoff in the strait, with several Iranian speedboats menacing American ships, almost provoking a violent response.

An F/A-18E Super Hornet prepares to launch from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Arabian Gulf. However, they were fired in a direction away from the passing commercial and coalition ships, the official said.