On Wednesday evening, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard shot down a U.S. MQ-4C Triton drone. Iran claims that the drone was flying in Iranian airspace. The United States denies this and says the drone was in international airspace. But either way, the action increases the risk of direct military conflict between the United States and Iran.
U.S. officials confirmed the shoot-down of the Triton, a long-range surveillance drone capable of flying for over 30 hours at speeds of almost 400 mph. It is not known to carry weapons, but can serve as an acquisition system, pointing out targets for missiles and aircraft. Iran claims that the Triton was shot down using a Sayyad surface-to-air missile that is part of Iran’s Raad air defense system. The Iranian-designed missiles have a range of about 60 miles.
Iran broadcast the claims of the action soon after it occurred. According to CNN, a Revolutionary Guard leader signaled that the shoot-down was “a warning to the U.S,” and that Iran does “not want war with any country, but we are completely, and totally, ready and prepared for war." U.S. Central Command spokesperson Bill Urban confirmed that the drone had been downed, but denied that the drone had been in Iranian airspace. "Iranian reports that the aircraft was over Iran are false," said Urban. "This was an unprovoked attack on a U.S. surveillance asset in international airspace."
The incident comes just days after the United States deployed 1,000 additional troops and additional military equipment to the region, and a week after the release of a video that the administration claimed showed Iranian forces removing an unexploded mine from the side of a tanker. The tanker was one of two damaged last week by what the U.S. described as limpet mines deployed by Iran, though the tanker’s owner has disagreed with U.S. reports. U.S. analysts indicated Iran as the only likely suspect in the tanker attacks, and Trump appeared on Fox News to say, “It was them that did it.”
The downing of the Triton may not have led to any injuries, but it seems all too similar to an incident 30 years ago in which a U.S. warship sent into the Straits of Hormuz by Ronald Reagan struck what was identified as an Iranian mine—and kicked off a brief but deadly exchange.
The series of events now occurring in the Persian Gulf are all too much like those that happened 30 years ago, when conflict between Iran and Iraq drew American forces to the region and led to a short, but extremely ugly, series of actions.
In the later stages of the Iran-Iraq conflict, both sides had mined areas of the Persian Gulf and conducted attacks on tankers in an effort to control and restrict oil supplies. U.S. forces were sent to the region to escort Kuwaiti oil tankers, and on April 14, 1988, the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine. The Roberts was damaged, but there was no loss of life. U.S. naval divers recovered other mines in the immediate area and identified them as Iranian.
On April 18, U.S. Navy and Marines attacked Iranian surface ships and oil platforms using ships, crew, and aircraft from the region and from a carrier group led by the USS Enterprise. Iran responded with an assortment of small speedboats and a pair of aging F-4 fighter jets. Over the course of 24 hours, U.S. forces destroyed two oil platforms, and sank three speedboats, one frigate, and one gunboat. One of the two fighter jets was also damaged. In all, Iran suffered 56 military losses. The U.S. lost two sailors when a helicopter went down during the action.
After that, the two sides backed away, but tensions remained extremely high. Then, on July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger jet on a regular flight within Iranian airspace, killing 290 civilians. For several days, the U.S. insisted that the jet had been a warplane, but was finally forced to admit that the passenger plane had been on a scheduled course, had not been coming toward the Vincennes, and had not taken any aggressive action. Still, the U.S. refused to apologize to Iran for the action.
The shooting down of a passenger jet remains the lasting impression of U.S. military actions for Iran, and it is being mentioned again in connection with Iranian claims that the U.S. drone was in Iranian airspace. Meanwhile, the U.S. is claiming that firing on the drone was an act of unprovoked aggression that took place in international airspace. At this point, no one is dead, and there is no guarantee that the drone incident will result in further exchanges—but then, no one was injured when the Roberts hit that mine in 1988.