According to two high-level U.S. officials, an Iranian Yono-Class “Midget” submarine attempted to launch a missile in the Strait of Hormuz and failed, Fox News reported. The launch comes after recent steps made by Iran to provoke the United States, such as defying certain U.N. sanctions concerning their nuclear program, and even as early as late April when Iranian attack crafts came within 1,000 meters of the USS Mahan.
In April, the U.S. Navy’s guided-missile destroyer fired a warning flare after an Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessel came within 1,000 meters of the USS Mahan, prompting them to sound alarms and even firing warning flares to determine the intentions of the Iranian boats, which passed by with little consequence.
According to Fox News, the USS Mahan “made several attempts to contact the Iranian vessel by bridge-to-bridge radio, issuing warning messages and twice sounding the internationally recognized danger signal of five short blasts with the ship’s whistle, as well as deploying a flare to determine the Iranian vessel’s intentions.”
North Korea is another country that has conducted a ballistic missile test from a submarine for the first time in 2015. It is not immediately clear if this is the first time in which Iran has attempted to launch a missile from underwater with a submarine of any class, however.
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