Monday's Naval Battle Ends Badly for Libya

U.S. Africa Command reports that in the evening of Monday, March 28, three Libyan ships, one large and two small, were attacking merchant vessels in the port of Misratah, Libya.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Barry and two nearby American planes responded. With Barry providing guidance, an Air Force A-10 Warthog used its Gatling gun to sink one small boat and disable the other. A Navy P-3C Orion fired two Maverick missiles at the larger Libyan ship, forcing its crew to run it aground to escape.

In the initial report, the Libyan vessel is described as a 12 meter Libyan Coast Guard vessel, called the Vittoria. The Libyans have no such vessel, but they do have several 32 meter ships of the Vittoria class that they bought from a firm in Croatia. These PV30-LS ships are designed with stealthy characteristics that give them a smaller radar image.

The A-10 is a heavily armored ground attack aircraft. It is designed to attack tanks and other armored vehicles. The use of an A-10 in a sea battle is very unusual. Weapons designed to shred main battle tanks were clearly capable of the task given the plane's pilot in this combat.

The P-3 is a sub hunter. It was designed to be able to loiter over an area for hours and search for Soviet submarines. Since the fall of Communism, the P-3C has demonstrated that it is a very capable surveillance aircraft. It is also able to carry a variety of weapons other than those used against submarines. The Navy variant of the Maverick missile carries a warhead more than double the size in use by the Air Force. U.S. Navy sources believe that this may be the first time that a P-3 has fired missiles in combat.

The A-10 is in use in Afghanistan and was widely used in Iraq. Its heavily armored frame allows it to absorb punishment that would destroy other planes.

In 2001, a Navy P-3 on a reconnaissance mission over the South China Sea collided with a jet fighter from China that had been shadowing the plane. The P-3 was forced to land in China but no one on board was seriously injured. The Chinese pilot was killed in the collision.

The USS Barry has the capability to fight such actions with its sea to sea missiles. In the harbor at Misratah, with a number of civilian ships in port, the decision was made to use air assets. The A-10 and the P-3C both have excellent targeting abilities and were able to identify the hostile ships and attack them.

Upstate New York resident Charles Simmins brings 30 years of accounting and finance experience and a keen interest in military affairs to the news of the day. His years of experience working with the personnel of the Secretary of Defense's New Media activity on Bloggers' Roundtables provide insights often overlooked by other reporters.