On May 17, 1987, the guided missile frigate USS Stark was hit by a pair of French-made Exocet Missiles fired from a French-made Dassault 50 Business jet code-named Suzanna
On May 17, 1987, the guided-missile frigate USS Stark was struck by two French-made Exocet missiles launched from a modified Dassault Falcon 50 business jet, code-named Suzanna. The aircraft had been fitted with the nose radar of a Mirage F1 and targeting systems adapted for these proven anti-ship missiles. At first, the attacker was believed to be a Mirage F1EQ, but it was later identified as an experimental missile-launch platform developed to give the Iraqi Air Force a fast anti-shipping capability during the later phase of the Iran-Iraq War. The attack killed 37 U.S. Navy sailors, while Stark’s anti-air radar and Standard Missile defenses were unable to react in time.
Stark reportedly attempted to contact the unidentified aircraft as it approached, but received no reply. The ship was said to be in international waters off Saudi Arabia, although later evidence indicated that her actual position was slightly different, closer to Iranian waters. In a parallel to the attack on HMS Sheffield, the first missile to hit Stark failed to explode, while the second inflicted heavy damage on the ship’s bridge and Combat Information Center.
Stark survived because of the crew’s damage-control efforts, with the ship’s captain, Glen Brindel, ordering counter-flooding to prevent her from capsizing. The vessel’s radars could not acquire the aircraft and engage it with the Standard Missile battery. It is clear that, while operating in the murky space between war and peace, the ship was unquestionably in harm’s way.
Even so, the Tanker War went on, with the United States and its Gulf State allies continuing to back Iraq in their effort to “contain” the Iranian Revolution. The U.S. Navy court-martialed Captain Brindel, and both he and his senior anti-air warfare officer accepted the court-martial’s findings. Brindel later retired as a Commander (O-5), one rank below Captain (O-6), the grade he held while in command, while his fire control officer eventually resigned from the Navy.
The reasons behind Stark’s presence in hostile waters can be debated endlessly, but at the time the United States was backing Iraq in its war with Iran while also quietly supplying Iran with just enough spare parts to keep its American-made weapons systems operational. In a sense, as Kissinger was reportedly quoted as saying in the video linked below, “the best outcome would be for BOTH sides to lose.”
In a sense, both sides did. Global oil prices remained low despite the instability in the Gulf, as Iran and Iraq both rushed to use oil revenue to fund their war efforts. This pushed prices downward even though each country was actively targeting the other’s oil supplies. Iraq also secured billions of dollars in loans from Gulf states, concerned that Iran might export its revolution into their own territories. The United States “accepted” Iraq’s apology, even while holding the Iraqi government responsible for the attack.
Iraq’s role as Iran’s main adversary was considered too important for the United States to risk a break in relations with Baghdad, and the U.S. Navy directly entered Persian Gulf operations the following year, in 1988. In July of that year, the Aegis guided-missile cruiser Vincennes did what naval wags dubbed a “Robocruiser” move and engaged an Iranian Airbus that it mistakenly identified as an Iranian F-14 Tomcat, shooting it down and killing everyone on board.
William Cobb, a licensed instrument flight instructor in single- and multi-engine airplanes and the founder and director of the Pensacola Aerospace Museum, said, “At the time, as a teenager and military brat, we speculated as to just how Iran had managed to keep their Tomcats flying. At that time, a series of arrests were made against individuals supplying Tomcat spares to Iran. The Iran-Contra scandal also offered a glimpse into the secret spare parts pipeline established to keep Iran’s Air Force fighting. Later on, after subsequently reading Tom Cooper’s excellent research on the subject, we have the answer to the questions related above as to just how this happened.”
“When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, we remember thinking back to the Stark incident, and upon seeing the press coverage demonizing a dictator who had been slapped on the wrist for an attack that killed 37 U.S. sailors, we thought of Orwell’s 1984 and recalled the words that make up the masthead of this post. ‘Oceana Is At War with Eastasia… Oceana has always been at War with Eastasia.’ For the crew and families of those lost in Stark, we offer our condolences and hope they may rest in peace, knowing the damage control efforts of their shipmates helped save the ship and offer relevant lessons that may save lives in future conflicts.”
“It is interesting to compare and contrast the successful saving of the Stark through the excellent damage control efforts of her crew with the recent fate of the Russian Guided Missile Cruiser Moskva, which was also hit by a pair of similarly sized missiles. During the 1980s, we can clearly remember Defense ‘experts’ lauding the heavy armament of Soviet Warships and contrasting them to the relatively light armament of USN designs. The HMS Sheffield suffered from a similar design flaw, with budget cuts forcing the design to carry a heavy armament on a hull shorter than later Batches of Type 22 Frigates.”
As Moskva’s fate makes clear, packing a warship with an extremely heavy load of explosive missiles does not necessarily improve its chances of surviving combat. Stark was only a frigate, yet it had enough built-in resilience to withstand a hit from two missiles, whereas both HMS Sheffield and RNS Moskva were sunk after similar strikes. As many commentators have observed, Russian damage-control practices have long been a weakness in both the Soviet and post-Soviet Russian Navy.
The link below features a short documentary about the Dassault Falcon 50 used in the attack.
To conclude, here is one final musical tribute, performed by Sheffield’s crew as they left their stricken ship aboard HMS Arrow.
Photo by U.S. Navy and PA via Wikipedia
