US Navy Riverines are gunned up and ready for combat
The new Mark VI patrol boat has triple the fire power of the Riverine Command Boat which it replaces.
The article also mentions the Farsi Island incident- the Navy was embarrassed that its crew did not fire on the Iranians and embarrassed that the leader apologized to Iran on camera. Today’s riverine crews know they must fight.The Mark VI patrol boat bristles with heavy automatic weapons, and that’s the way its crews like it.
“I tell the crews that you want to look like a porcupine,” said U.S. Navy Senior Chief Derrick Cox, who trains the sailors that man the Mark VI as part of Coastal Riverine Squadron 2’s training evaluation unit. “You don’t want to kick a porcupine because you know there will be consequences.”
The Mark VI is a replacement for the Riverine Command Boat, which gained notoriety three years ago when two of them, along with their crews, were captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard when they strayed into Iranian waters near Farsi Island in the Arabian Gulf.
“This has double, maybe even triple the firepower of the RCB,” Cox said.