The USS drone killer is here

The US navy’s amphibious assault ship, USS Boxer, which downed Iranian drones in the Strait of Hormuz made a port of call yesterday at Khalifa bin Salman Port, said the Stars and Stripes in a report. Boxer’s crew, roughly 2,000 sailors and Marines, are expected to rest and relax while in the kingdom.

Earlier, US Central Command chief General Kenneth McKenzie told CBS News in an interview aboard the USS Boxer that the warship may have brought down two Iranian drones during a stand-off in the Gulf last week. “We are confident we brought down one drone, we may have brought down a second,” General Kenneth McKenzie said. A spokesman for CENTCOM, Lieutenant Colonel Earl Brown, later said that the ship had carried out a “defensive action” after “aggressive interactions by two Iranian (drones) in international waters.”

“We observed one (drone) crash into the water but did not observe a ‘splash’ for the other,” he said.  CBS said the drones were reportedly brought down by an electronic signal or pulse that disabled their flight controls. According to Stars and Stripes, the drone was reportedly disabled by Marines of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the Boxer using an electronic jamming device known as a Light Marine Air Defence Integrated System, or LMADIS, as manned and unmanned Iranian aircraft swooped in near the warship.

It is believed to be the first “kill” for the LMADIS, USNI News reported, and likely cost less than alternatives like missiles. Iran, which last month shot down a US Global Hawk  drone  that it said had ventured into its airspace, has denied that it lost any of its unmanned aerial vehicles after President Donald Trump announced that the USS Boxer had downed one.  The purported splashing of the drone comes about a month after Iranian forces shot down a US military spy drone with a surface-to-air missile. US officials claimed the drone was in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran claimed the drone had ventured into Iranian airspace.

USS Boxer, along with attached 11th MEU and two support ships, arrived in Middle East waters in June, as the US deployed troops and equipment to the region, including a carrier strike group and bomber task force, in response to what Washington said were increased threats against US personnel or property from Iran or its proxy forces. The report further said CENTCOM is preparing to send troops to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia as part of about 2,000 additional forces being sent to the region.

CENTCOM, Stars and Stripes said, is also developing an international maritime coalition to increase surveillance and security, and to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Gulf, as well as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden near Yemen, the command said last week.