New US jammer downs alleged Iranian drone in Gulf; What next for US-Turkey?; New CNO tapped; ‘Resistance ops’ in the Baltics; And a bit more.

The U.S. Navy downed a flying object in the Hormuz Strait Thursday, an object that today Iranian officials insist was not in fact Iranian, despite President Donald Trump’s allegations at an afternoon ceremony in the East Room of the White House. 

Here’s the U.S. president bringing the episode to everyone’s attention: “I want to apprise everyone of an incident in the Strait of Hormuz today involving USS Boxer, a Navy amphibious assault ship. The Boxer took defensive action against an Iranian drone, which had closed into a very, very near distance, approximately 1,000 yards, ignoring multiple calls to stand down and was threatening the safety of the ship and the ship’s crew. The drone was immediately destroyed. This is the latest of many provocative and hostile actions by Iran against vessels operating in international waters. The United States reserves the right to defend our personnel, our facilities, and interests, and calls upon all nations to condemn Iran’s attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation and global commerce. I also call on other nations to protect their ships as they go through the Strait, and to work with us in the future. Thank you very much. I thought you should you know that.” Find video of his remarks, via NBC News, here. 

About 30 minutes later, the Pentagon released its own short statement about what happened: “At approximately 10 a.m. local time, the amphibious ship USS Boxer was in international waters conducting a planned inbound transit of the Strait of

Article source: https://www.defenseone.com/news/2019/07/the-d-brief-july-19-2019/158547/