FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2019 04 The USS drone killer is here USS Boxer which downed Iranian drones makes port of call in

TDT | Manama electronic signal or pulse that 11th MEU and two support ships, disabled their flight controls. arrived in Middle East waters in The USS Boxer (LHD 4) as it transits he US navy’s amphibious According to Stars and Stripes, June, as the US deployed troops the East Sea during Exercise Ssang Yong 2016. The US military shot down an Iranian drone on July 18, 2019 that came within assault ship, USS Boxer, the drone was reportedly disa- and equipment to the region, 1,000 yards of one of its naval vessels in the , which downed Iranian bled by Marines of the 11th Ma- including a carrier strike group T President Donald Trump said.”The (USS) Boxer took defensive drones in the Strait of Hormuz rine Expeditionary Unit aboard and bomber task force, in re - action against an Iranian drone which had closed into a very, made a port of call yesterday at the Boxer using an electronic sponse to what Washington said very near distance, approximately 1,000 yards,” Trump Khalifa bin Salman Port, said the jamming device known as a were increased threats against announced at the White House. Stars and Stripes in a report. Light Marine Air Defence In- US personnel or property from Boxer’s crew, roughly 2,000 tegrated System, or LMADIS, as Iran or its proxy forces. sailors and Marines, are expect- manned and unmanned Irani- The report further said CENT- ed to rest and relax while in the an aircraft swooped in near the COM is preparing to send troops kingdom. warship. to Prince Sultan Air Base in Sau- Earlier, US Central Command It is believed to be the first di Arabia as part of about 2,000 chief General Kenneth McKen- “kill” for the LMADIS, USNI News additional forces being sent to zie told CBS News in an inter- reported, and likely cost less the region. view aboard the USS Boxer that than alternatives like missiles. CENTCOM, Stars and Stripes the warship may have brought Iran, which last month said, is also developing an inter- down two Iranian drones during shot down a US Global national maritime coa- a stand-off in the Gulf last week. Hawk drone that it said had lition to increase “We are confident we brought ventured into its airspace, has surveillance and down one drone, we may have denied that it lost any of its un- security, and to brought down a second,” Gener- manned aerial vehicles after ensure freedom al Kenneth McKenzie said. President Donald Trump an- of navigation A spokesman for CENTCOM, nounced that the USS Boxer had in the Strait Lieutenant Colonel Earl Brown, downed one. of Hormuz, later said that the ship had car- The purported splashing of the Gulf of ried out a “defensive action” af- the drone comes about a month Oman and the ter “aggressive interactions by after Iranian forces shot down Arabian Gulf, as well two Iranian (drones) in interna- a US military spy drone with a as the Bab el-Mandeb tional waters.” surface-to-air missile. US offi- Strait, which connects “We observed one (drone) cials claimed the drone was in the Red Sea to the Gulf crash into the water but did not international airspace over the of Aden near Yemen, the observe a ‘splash’ for the other,” Strait of Hormuz, while Tehran command said last week. he said. claimed the drone had ventured CBS said the drones were re- into Iranian airspace. portedly brought down by an USS Boxer, along with attached