That’s a big weapons seizure

[2muchcoffeeman]

Somebody’s Middle Eastern “machine parts” order just missed the 30-minutes-or-less delivery.

U.S. 5th Fleet seizes weapons shipment from stateless dhow in Arabian Sea

 

[Justin_Rice]

The navy nerd in me wants to know what ship they brought in to lay all those weapons out on. That's not a cruiser. I'm guessing an LHA or something?


Edit: Questioned answered. That must be the Eisenhower, because it appears that's the battle group the Monteray is deployed with.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

If this isn’t the deck of the Monterey, the captions were wrong on the photos distributed by AP and Reuters.

And this part of the AP story is incorrect:


The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey discovered the weapons aboard what the Navy described as a stateless dhow, a traditional Mideast sailing ship, in an operation that began Thursday in the northern reaches of the Arabian Sea off Oman and Pakistan. Sailors boarded the vessel and found the weapons, most wrapped in green plastic, below deck.

When laid out on the deck of the Monterey, the scale of the find came into focus. Sailors found nearly 3,000 Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, a variant of the Kalashnikov. They recovered hundreds of other heavy machine guns and sniper rifles, as well as dozens of advanced, Russian-made anti-tank guided missiles. The shipments also included several hundred rocket-propelled grenade launchers and optical sights for weapons.

Story ran in the Tampa Bay Tribune.
U.S. Navy seizes hidden cache of weapons likely bound for Yemen

 

[Justin_Rice]

If this isn’t the deck of the Monterey, the captions were wrong on the photos distributed by AP and Reuters.

And this part of the AP story is incorrect:


The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey discovered the weapons aboard what the Navy described as a stateless dhow, a traditional Mideast sailing ship, in an operation that began Thursday in the northern reaches of the Arabian Sea off Oman and Pakistan. Sailors boarded the vessel and found the weapons, most wrapped in green plastic, below deck.

When laid out on the deck of the Monterey, the scale of the find came into focus. Sailors found nearly 3,000 Chinese Type 56 assault rifles, a variant of the Kalashnikov. They recovered hundreds of other heavy machine guns and sniper rifles, as well as dozens of advanced, Russian-made anti-tank guided missiles. The shipments also included several hundred rocket-propelled grenade launchers and optical sights for weapons.

Story ran in the Tampa Bay Tribune.
U.S. Navy seizes hidden cache of weapons likely bound for Yemen

I denounce myself. That's for sure the Monterey's helicopter deck.

 

[Driftwood]

Yeah, I was about to say that was the helo deck. You can see the 5-inch and tube launcher in the background.

 

[Neutral Corner]

It looks like a large shipment, and by any reasonable standard that's a lot of weapons, but that was all on one dhow. That's a traditional sailing vessel, and not a particularly large one. So yes, that's a sizeable shipment, enough to arm perhaps as many as 5,000 fighters, but compared to what one medium sized freighter could carry it's rather small. It would arm a lot of Houthi rebels, but on the arms shipment scale it looks more impressive than it is.

Glad they caught it, of course.

 

[Justin_Rice]

Yeah, I was about to say that was the helo deck. You can see the 5-inch and tube launcher in the background.

Yeah I didn't realize the five-inch was that far aft on the cruiser.