If you look at the next photo, there are holes in the central hull that appear to have been made from the outside. I don't know if they are impact holes from weapons fire, or holes for waste discharge systems. I tend to suspect the latter, as if the ship had taken small-arms fire, I would have expected to see similar hulls in the side hulls.
The video of the attack may have been doctored. It appears to show the launching of a pretty large weapon, as you can see what appears to be the booster separate. But the damage to the ship may be suggestive of the ship being hit with antitank rockets that triggered secondaries from the cargo. The Iranian Noor/Qader ASCM has a warhead of about 500lbs-- a 500lb warhead detonating inside an aluminum-hulled ship of that size likely would have blown the living shit out of it.
Or, possibly, the warhead didn't detonate and only the fuel did. That's not unknown with such weapons, i.e., the HMS Sheffield and the USS Stark.
Something definitely went BOOM inside it. Buckled the bulkheads under the pilot house and blew every window out of it. Also notice the smaller holes right above the water line by the keel line of the bow.
ReplyDeleteAlmost blew the whole front end off the thing after looking harder at the Port side.
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