Operation Nimble Archer
| Operation Nimble Archer | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Iran–Iraq War, Operation Earnest Will | |||||||||
 An Iranian oil platform set ablaze after shelling by American destroyers. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 United States
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 Iran
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 6 warships 3 aircraft |
2 oil platforms | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| None in the operation 18 injured in the attack on MV Sea Isle City, which led to the operation |
2 oil platforms destroyed | ||||||||
Operation Nimble Archer was the 19 October 1987, attack on two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf by United States Navy forces. The attack was a response to Iran's missile attack three days earlier on MV Sea Isle City, a reflagged Kuwaiti oil tanker at anchor off Kuwait. The action occurred during Operation Earnest Will, the effort to protect Kuwaiti shipping amid the Iran–Iraq War.
Iran subsequently filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the United States for reparations at the International Court of Justice.
On 16 October, Sea Isle City was in Kuwaiti waters, waiting to be loaded. It had been escorted there by U.S. warships, but was not under their protection at the time. An Iranian Silkworm missile launched from the Iranian-occupied Al-Faw Peninsula hit the ship's wheel house and crew quarters, blinding its master, a U.S. citizen and wounding 18 crew members. The damage to the ship would take four months to repair.
In retaliation, U.S. officials decided to attack two platforms in the Rashadat oil field (named Rostam oil field before 1979). Having been damaged by Iraq a year earlier, the platforms were not producing oil, but had been used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps for military purposes.
Twenty minutes before the surface action group opened fire, USS Thach radioed the platforms, telling the crews to abandon them. At 2 pm, four U.S. destroyers opened fire: USS Hoel, USS Leftwich, USS Kidd, and USS John Young. One platform was boarded by U.S. special forces, who recovered teletype messages and other documents, then planted explosives to destroy the platform. Air cover was provided by the cruisers USS Long Beach and USS William H. Standley, two F-14 Tomcat fighters and an E-2 Hawkeye from USS Ranger. The high-explosive shells did negligible blast damage to the steel-lattice platforms, but eventually set them ablaze.
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