About a day-and-a-half after Vice President JD Vance said it wasn’t a war between the US and Iran, the “not war” escalated when the IRGC fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) at a US aircraft carrier and a destroyer in the Gulf of Oman, forcing them to take evasive action. “A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked (!) Iranian attacks,” Centcom said in a statement. Centcom retaliated with attacks on three Iranian tankers, one near Kharg Island, one just east of the Strait of Hormuz and the third in the Gulf of Oman near the Iranian coast. The third ship, the M/T Kylo, sank overnight.
“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours,” Centcom commander Adm. Brad Cooper said. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”
This was the first known instance of Iran targeting U.S. ships with ASBMs. “Until now, Iran had refrained from using this high-end weapon (likely the Khalij-e-Fars ASBM) due to fear it would provoke a massive American retaliation,” commented the Middle East Spectator. “No hits on the carrier were recorded, but CENTCOM admitted that the USS George Washington was forced to perform evasive maneuvers.”
“Anti-ship ballistic missiles, contrary to ordinary anti-ship cruise missiles or drones, pose a real significant threat to U.S. Navy vessels, and their usage by Iran marks a significant escalation,” he added.
Danny Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, agreed. That Iran targeted a U.S. aircraft carrier with a ballistic missile “indicates that Tehran is becoming increasingly willing to accept risks it previously sought to avoid, including directly threatening some of the most important U.S. military assets in the region,” he said on X.
And the Iranians are promising more. Lieutenant-Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaqari, Spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said on Saturday that the Iranian Armed Forces would respond more forcefully if the US military continued its “acts of aggression,” creating insecurity and harassing Iranian ships, or maintained its naval blockade of Iran, reported IRNA. He added that the Iranian armed forces would target US military vessels in the region “more severely than before” if Washington persisted with such actions. He also warned that the scope of the Iranian military response could expand if the United States continued its measures against Iran.
