Operation Praying Mantis

[Sayeret]

On 14 April 1988, watchstanders aboard USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) sighted three mines floating approximately one-half mile from the ship. Twenty minutes after the first sighting, as Samuel B. Roberts was backing clear of the minefleld, she struck a submerged mine nearly ripping the warship in half. Working feverishly for seven hours, the crew stabilized the ship. Samuel B. Roberts was sent back to the United States for repair.

Three days after the mine blast, forces of Joint Task Force Middle East executed the American response -- Operation PRAYING MANTIS. During a two-day period, the Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force units of Joint Task Force Middle East destroyed two oil platforms being used by Iran to coordinate attacks on merchant shipping, sank or destroyed three Iranian warships and neutralized at least six Iranian speedboats.

Operating in conjunction with USS WAINWRIGHT (CG 28) and USS BAGLEY (FF 1069), USS SIMPSON (FFG-56) was assigned to the strike on the Iranian oil platform at Sirri, and shelled the platform. In response, the Iranian Navy missile patrol combatant JOSHAN approached the three U.S. ships. When JOSHAN was warned to stand clear, she responded by firing a Harpoon missile at the group. SIMPSON was the first ship to return fire, striking JOSHAN with the first of four successful missiles she fired that day. After JOSHAN was disabled by missile fire, she was sunk by gunfire. As a result of that action, SIMPSON and her crew were awarded the Joint Meritorious Unit Award and the Combat Action Ribbon, along with numerous personal awards received by individual crew members.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/praying_mantis.htm

[Jedburgh]

A bit more detail from Proceedings: The Air View: Operation Praying Mantis (http://www.law.sc.edu/linnan/examarcv/air1.htm) and The Surface View: Operation Praying Mantis (http://www.law.sc.edu/linnan/examarcv/surface1.htm)

[Coop]

The following are details about the engagement between USS Wainwright and IRINS Joshan, during Praying Mantis, as can be found in the book "Iran-Iraq War in the Air, 1980-1988", p.270:

Around 1230hrs, Joshan closed to 20nm (37.5km) of SAG Charlie, and was detected by US radars and helicopters. Immediately, American warships sent three warnings to the Iranians not to close any futher, or risk being sunk. Around 1240hrs, the crew of Joshan was warned to shut off the engine and abandon ship, while four US helicotpers took positions in the vicinity. There followed a flow of tense radio exchanges for the next ten minutes before Capt. Chandler, USS Wainwright's skipper, finally came on line and warned, "This is the captain of CG-28 speaking. Suggest you abandon ship - we are about to sink you!"

At this stage LCDR Mallek [Joshan's skipper] was informed that the US helicopters and aircraft were clearly taking offensive manoeuvres. Now just 10nm (19km) from the US ships, the skipper of Joshan ordered an attack, in an apparent breach of the IRIN's general ROEs, which had exclusively prohibited firing first at US Navy ships. One BGM-84A Harpoon was fired against Wainwright, and the missle flew straight towards the target. As pre-programmed, during the final phase of its flight the Harpoon climbed steeply and activated its radar seeker head to hit its target from above, but by that time the US crusier had already fired almost all of her chaffs and engaged the AN/SLQ-32(V)2 EW-suite, causing a miss. Nonetheless, the Harpoon passed so close over the ship that the personnel on the bridge was deafened by the roar of the missile.

Nearby, the USS Simpson also launched chaff and manoeuvred hard to break an eventual lock, and less than one minute later this frigate was the first US ship to return fire, launching two RIM-66/SM-1MR Block 6 Standard missiles in the surface attack mode.

Almost simultaneously, Wainwright followed with at least one RIM-67B/SM-2ER Standard, also in surface attack mode. It remains unknown which missile reached the target first, but it was decoyed by Joshan's chaffs and a hard starboard turn, and exploded in the water, some 70m away from the ship. At that moment, Mallek ordered his crew to fire a SA-7 at one of the US Sea Cobra helicopters in the vicinity, and - according to Joshan's crewmembers - the missile scored a direct hit, blotting the helicopters out of the sky. Only seconds later, however, another Standard missile exploded inside the engine room of the Iranian craft, leaving it dead in the water and witout steering. Both the captain and the XO were injured...

[2RHPZ]

Almost all was said, here is just small contribution (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3738/is_200309/ai_n9272085)