Commercial Ships Claim Chinese Ownership to Avoid Iranian Attacks
Commercial ships sailing near the Strait of Hormuz reportedly present themselves as Chinese-owned or crewed by Chinese nationals, in a bid to avoid terrorist attacks from Iran.
According to the Associated Press (AP), at least eight vessels in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman were spotted on Friday. observed change their destination transponder signals to broadcast messages such as “China Owner” or “China Owner & Crew.” The destination signal is normally a short message that indicates a ship’s next port of call.
Ship tracking services said a few of the ships in question were actually Chinese-flagged or had clear ties to Chinese ownership. At least some of them were apparently able to safely cross the Strait of Hormuz by claiming to have ties to China.
Tehran has offered insurance to China, its largest trading partner and political ally, that Chinese ships will not be attacked if they use the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian forces have attack several civilian ships equipped with drones since the start of Operation Epic Fury on February 28, causing significant damage to some of their targets and leaving at least one dead.
“In past Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, some ships have taken a similar approach by declaring themselves or their crews to have ties to China, in an effort to try to reduce the risk of attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis,” the AP noted.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said On Friday, Iran “exercises real desperation in the Strait of Hormuz”.
“We have faced this problem and we don’t need to worry about it,” he said.
“Of course, for decades, Iran has threatened navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. This is always what it does, taking the strait hostage. We expected it. We recognize it,” he insisted.
American officials said the point of sale on the left New York Times (New York Times) on Thursday that Iran is attempting to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz using small boats after U.S. strikes took out all of the Iranian navy’s largest ships.
THE from the New York Times sources said Iran’s new mining effort was “not particularly rapid or effective,” and it was unclear whether Iran could use these methods to drop mines faster than the United States could clear them. Mining the Strait of Hormuz would also appear to undermine promises Tehran made to China that its ships would enjoy safe passage.
Cameron Chell, CEO of drone company Draganfly said Fox News reported Friday that the most serious threat in the Strait of Hormuz today is Iranian drones or “suicide skiffs,” remotely controlled surface craft that can be deployed in swarms against slow-moving oil tankers or cargo ships.
“The Iranians are likely using radio remote control, line of sight, frequency hopping or encrypted radio communications between the skiffs and the Hormuz coastline,” Chell said.
“Those can be blocked and tracked, but when there are 50 of these boats, it’s difficult to try to track them all along that coastline or find a 20-foot wooden fishing boat loaded with explosives,” he noted.
Chell said it was possible for a single person to control up to ten simple surface drones at a time, and they might even be capable of “autonomous swarming” under computer control. He warned that it would take intense surveillance and significant firepower to keep the narrow strait completely clear of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs).
“The Iranians can disguise them as fishing boats and they can be between 12 and 30 feet long and a boat can be of any description,” he said.
The most destructive Iranian attack on a civilian vessel to date, Thursday’s attack on a Marshall Islands-flagged U.S. tanker off the coast of Iraq, appears to have been perpetrated with a USV.
