WesWorld

As hinted at in the "rubbergas" post, the Saudis are generally ranting about Indian saboteurs but may not be particularly clear on how the sabotage was committed. The dead guy they have is probably not in his wet-gear anymore, as this would obscure his identity from the press.

Meanwhile, the official Indian position is going to be along the lines of, "Amiir al-Bihar has been destroyed but we can not comment on the specifics of the mission due to operational security requirements."

I think a country with past experience in similar ops, a country allied to India, or a country which has enough evidence (the UK, in this case, has three clues) could put the story together; others might get there through guesswork. Question is - will they take it as a serious threat, or say, "Yeah - but it was a thirty year-old peice of crap in a Saudi backwater port. That couldn't happen to my shiny new 40,000 t battleship!"

It's pretty similar to what happened to Viribis Unitis in 1918, so similar things have happened in the past. In both cases, arguments can be made that the ships were relatively old, and their crews not as well trained as might be hoped, but still.......

The next question is, will the House of Saud be attempting to salvage the ship's guns?

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I think a country with past experience in similar ops

Italy thinks: Hmm ships don't tend to sink by themselves. We'll have to be a lot more careful with our ships in the Red Sea in future.

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Originally posted by Swamphen
The next question is, will the House of Saud be attempting to salvage the ship's guns?

Where will they get the salvage ships?

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Originally posted by thesmilingassassin

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Originally posted by Swamphen
The next question is, will the House of Saud be attempting to salvage the ship's guns?

Where will they get the salvage ships?

Depending on whether or not she was alongside when sunk, shore-based cranes might be up to the job.

In the mean time she'll make a wonderfull target for Bombers if they have the range.

Flying from Asir, she's probably a bit out of range, even on a one-way trip.

Now if bases elsewhere were available...

(Based on the 1200km range of a certain two "Indian" Do 11s.)

It's always possible that Urumi may mosey up north to do something - but as long as Amiir al-Bihar's stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba, she's really not bothering India very much.

Well its only a 3 foot hole so the Saudis can patch it up and pump her out...