CombatClaret wrote:If it was a missile the small impact hole means it could have only been a small basic shoulder mounted missile or RPG which would have had to been fired for quite a close range from a nearby boat/ship in visual range, no mentions of that in the report.
A proper anti-ship missile, even older models, coming in low across the water from over the horizon would have caused massive damage.
When HMS Sheffield was attacked in the Falklands, even a trained navy crew in a war zone on a ship specifically designed to deal with attacks by missles from the air failed to realise it was a missile until it almost hit.
And missiles come in low, and the pop up last minute before plunging down onto the ship.
The chances of the Captain of a commercial supertanker being in the right place at the right time to see a small missile coming in is low (and to know what it was) enough to discount it as credible evidence
I doubt the mine one as well, as surely all you'd do is scatter the mines in the Straits to hit something.
Its going to be an RPG or similar fired from a small patrol craft. its what Iran has been using to try to close the Straits of Hormuz since the 1980s and one thing theocracies ruled by a book written over a thousand years ago are really, really really good at is not changing stuff. Ever.
EDIT - This isn't call for war against Iran, because that would be mad. What it is a realistic look at what is happening in the Gulf, and that people need to exercise extreme caution before doing anything.