US Navy video shows Iranian vessels harassing US ships in the Persian Gulf for the first time in almost a year

• Iranian IRGCN vessels harassed US Coast Guard ships in the Persian Gulf earlier this month.
• The US Navy has released photos and video of the incident.
• At one point, a large Iranian vessel crossed the bow of a US ship at "unnecessarily close range."

A US Navy video and several photos show Iranian vessels harassing US Coast Guard ships in the Persian Gulf earlier this month, the first such incident in almost a year.

Three Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy fast-attack boats and one larger support vessel, Harth 55, swarmed US Coast Guard patrol boats Wrangell and Monomoy during maritime security operations in international waters on April 2.

The US Navy says that during the three-hour incident, the Harth 55 "repeatedly crossed the bows of the US vessels at an unnecessarily close range," at one point coming within 70 yards of the US ships.

One "unsafe and unprofessional" approach, as the Navy described it, was captured on video.

The US Navy said the large Iranian vessel "closed aggressively" with the Wrangell, forcing it to maneuver to avoid a collision while blowing the horn.

In addition to blasting the horn five times, the US ships also radioed the Iranian vessel. The Harth 55 responded to bridge-to-bridge communications but did not alter its behavior. The IRGCN vessels eventually withdrew after about three hours.

The Navy said that "the IRGCN's actions were deemed unsafe and unprofessional" because "their actions increased the risk of miscalculation and collision."

The two Coast Guard vessels are assigned to Patrol Forces Southwest Asia and operate under US Naval Forces Central Command's Task Force 55.

The incident earlier this month is the first such incident since April 15, 2020, meaning it is the first tense encounter between US military ships and IRGCN vessels of the Biden administration.

During the April 2020 incident, which lasted about an hour, 11 IRGC boats "conducted dangerous and harassing approaches" toward US Navy and Coast Guard ships conducting operations in international waters. At one point, one of the Iranian boats came within 10 yards of one of the Coast Guard cutters.

The US Navy characterized that encounter as not only "unsafe and unprofessional" but also "dangerous and provocative."

In response to the aggressive behavior, then-President Donald Trump tweeted that he had ordered the US Navy to "destroy" Iranian gunboats that "harass our ships at sea." He then doubled down in a White House press conference, asserting that the Navy would "shoot them out of the water." No such action occurred.

These types of encounters with the IRGCN were once fairly common. In 2015, there were 23 "unsafe and unprofessional" interactions with Iranian naval vessels. In 2016, there were 35, and in 2017, there were 14, the AP reported.

Though malign IRGC activities continued, harassment of US ships at sea stopped for a time starting in 2018 but has since resumed.

The US Navy said that "US naval forces continue to remain vigilant and are trained to act in a professional manner." The service added that "commanding officers retain the inherent right to act in self-defense."