Yesterday, two US Navy Riverine Command Boats (RCBs) with a combined crew of ten sailors were apprehended by Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats. One or both of the RCBs had suffered a mechanical failure and had drifted into Iranian waters. The Iranians released the two boats and the sailors, nine men and one woman, today. The incident raised one question, at least in my mind, “what is a Riverine Command Boat?”
The Riverine Command Boat (RCB) is a design based on the Swedish Combat Boat 90. It is a highly maneuverable water-jet powered shallow-draft vessel that can operate at speeds of up to 40 knots. The design has been adopted by navies around the world. The Swedish Navy has 150 of the boats in service while Mexico has 48, Norway 20 and Malaysia 12, the US 6 and the UK 4.
The US Navy version of the RCB is built by Safe Boat International. A video of two RCBs in the Arabian/Persian Gulf:
Back at Fleet Week 2008, there were two MK1s in the harbor. Were they an earlier version of this boat, or a competitor for this niche within the Navy missions: https://tugster.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/speed-2-2/
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Interesting. Thanks, Will.
A timely and written article, Rick Spilman.
“Highly maneuverable” barring any mechanical failures I suppose. Thanks for the post Rick, I didn’t know it was mechanical failure. The news made it sound like we just kind of decided to go into Iranian waters haphazardly.
These have been around awhile, watched videos on them in the past.
2013 Sweden in Orange:
https://youtu.be/xw633ehJETc
Anyone know what the US complement and ranks/ratings for one of these are? Officer or enlisted boat commander? Or is their a single patrol officer for the pair with an enlisted boat commander as in the Vietnam-era PBRs?
What will happen with the boats….Iran keeps them as a prize?
The sailors left with the boats, which apparently, according to the latest Navy statement, did not suffer a mechanical failure.
Sorry folks but this ‘incident’ so far doesn’t go down with an old salt like me and I’m sure in time we may hear “the rest of the story”–if we continue to turn the heat up on the Navy, Pentagon, State Department up to the White House. Our sailors appearing in the carefully staged propaganda video from Iran were forced to grovel with Korean War, Viet Nam type scripted statements so typically forced on our captured men and women. What really could they do?
Groveling?
The statement was: “It was a mistake that was our fault and we apologize for our mistake,” said the U.S sailor, who was identified by Iran’s Press TV as the commander. “It was a misunderstanding. We did not mean to go into Iranian territorial water. ”
That is some considerable distance from groveling.
Okay, gang, perhaps I did push the envelope too far with the term “govel” after I reviewed another TV excerpted video with more detail. Nothing like eating sea gull–but I will.
Not a big deal. Unfortunately, there are those who wanted to gain political advantage from the situation, so the media reports got a bit exaggerated. On the other hand, Trump was demanding the sailors be released immediately several hours after they had already been released with their boats.
Donald Trump calls for release of sailors from Iran hours after they had been set free
Eventually we will hear what really happened. I want to know if the American commander gave permission to be boarded and who made that decision.
All the Riverine sailors have grandaddies, the guys that ran PBRs in the Mekong Delta.
Why did the Navy send 2 boats on a trip that was a bit more than their range (320 nm) without an adequate refueling plan? Most Navy ships have UHF, VHF and HF radios. You have to be on the back side of the moon to lose coms with HF! When one ship breaks down the other one tows it. Thats what we trained for 40 years ago. Has the navy forgotten how to tow? Also the loss of GPS is BS and anybody that has ever been on a ship knows it. There is something else to this story and it may never come out. I just don’t buy the story that a USNA grad Lt. and a bunch of senior enlisted POs are that stupid. There is something elso going on here.