View source for Operation Nimble Archer

{{Short description|1987 U.S. naval attack on Iranian oil platforms during the Iran-Iraq War}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox operational plan
| name         = Operation Nimble Archer
| partof       = [[Iran–Iraq War]], [[Operation Earnest Will]]
| image        = Operation Nimble Archer DN-SC-88-01042.jpg
| image_size   = 250px
| alt          = 
| caption      = An Iranian oil platform set ablaze after shelling by American destroyers
| scope        =
| type         =
| location     = [[Persian Gulf]]
| coordinates  = 
| map_type     = 
| map_size     = 
| map_caption  = 
| map_label    = 
| planned      = 
| planned_by   = 
| commanded_by = {{flagcountry|United States}}
| objective    = 
| target       = Two Iranian oil platforms (Resalat and Reshadat)
| date         = 19 October 1987
| time         =
| time-begin   =
| time-end     =
| timezone     =
| executed_by  = [[United States Navy]]: 6 warships, 3 aircraft
| outcome      = American victory
*Oil platforms destroyed<ref name="nohigherhonor">{{cite web|last=Peniston|first=Bradley|title=Photos: Operation Nimble Archer|work=No Higher Honor|year=2006|url=http://www.navybook.com/no-higher-honor/timeline/operation-nimble-archer/|access-date=4 February 2013|archive-date=8 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220708081004/https://www.navybook.com/no-higher-honor/timeline/operation-nimble-archer/|url-status=live}}</ref>
| casualties   = None
}}
{{Campaignbox Iran-Iraq War}}
'''Operation Nimble Archer''' was the 19 October 1987 attack on two [[Iran]]ian oil platforms in the [[Persian Gulf]] by [[United States Navy]] forces. The attack was a response to Iran's missile attack on {{ship|MV|Sea Isle City||6}}, a reflagged [[Kuwait]]i [[oil tanker]] at anchor off Kuwait, which had occurred three days earlier. The action occurred during [[Operation Earnest Will]], the effort to protect Kuwaiti shipping amid the [[Iran–Iraq War]].

Iran subsequently filed a lawsuit against the United States for reparations at the [[International Court of Justice]]. The Court ruled, by 14 votes to two, that the retaliatory attacks by the U.S. Navy against certain Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf in 1987 and 1988 constituted an unlawful use of force but did not violate [[Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights (United States–Iran)|1955 Treaty of Amity]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/8/issue/25/world-court-finds-us-attacks-iranian-oil-platforms-1987-1988-were-not|title=The World Court Finds that U.S. Attacks on Iranian Oil Platforms in 1987–1988 Were Not Justifiable as Self-Defense, but the United States Did Not Violate the Applicable Treaty with Iran|last=Bekker|first=Pieter|date=11 November 2003|website=American Society of International Law|access-date=13 May 2017|archive-date=5 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005153836/https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/8/issue/25/world-court-finds-us-attacks-iranian-oil-platforms-1987-1988-were-not|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Operation==
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.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ship flying U.S. flag hit; 18 wounded |work=St. Petersburg Times |place=St. Petersburg, Florida |date=17 October 1987 |page=1.A}}</ref> An Iranian [[Silkworm missile]] launched from the Iranian-occupied [[Al-Faw Peninsula]] hit the ship's [[Bridge (nautical)|wheel house]] and crew quarters, blinding its [[Captain (nautical)|master]], a U.S. citizen,<ref>{{cite news|title=Blinded U.S. Captain Recovers After Attack; Glass Sprayed Head When Missile Struck|first=Patrick E.|last=Tyler|newspaper=The Washington Post|place=Washington, D.C.|date=19 October 1987|page=a.16}}</ref> and wounding 18 crew members. The damage to the ship would take four months to repair.<ref name=ICJ>{{cite web|url=http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/90/8632.pdf|title=Counter-Memorial and Counter-claim submitted by the United States of America|publisher=International Court of Justice|date=23 June 1997|access-date=18 January 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331230923/http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/90/8632.pdf|archive-date=31 March 2014}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/3423|title=Gulf of Conflict|first=David B.|last=Crist|publisher=Washington Institute for Near East policy|date=June 2009|access-date=18 January 2015|archive-date=14 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414145957/https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/3423|url-status=live}}</ref>

Twenty minutes before the surface action group opened fire, {{USS|Thach}} radioed the platforms, telling the crews to abandon them. At 2&nbsp;pm, four U.S. destroyers opened fire: {{USS|Hoel|DDG-13|6}}, {{USS|Leftwich}}, {{USS|Kidd|DDG-993|6}}, and {{USS|John Young}}.<ref name="nohigherhonor"/> 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|CGN-9|6}}, {{USS|Gridley|CG-21|6}} and {{USS|William H. Standley}}, two [[F-14 Tomcat]] fighters and an [[E-2 Hawkeye]] from {{USS|Ranger|CV-61|6}}. The high-explosive shells did negligible blast damage to the steel-lattice platforms, but eventually set them ablaze.<ref name="nohigherhonor"/> 

{{location map|Iran|caption=The approximate location of the platforms and the operation|lat_deg=25.9|lon_deg=52.7|width=200}}

U.S. officials said the platforms were being used by Iranian forces as command-and-control posts with radars to track shipping in the area and communications gear to relay messages between the mainland and Iranian forces operating near the platforms. [[U.S. Defense Secretary]] [[Caspar W. Weinberger]] said Iran used the facility to "launch small boat attacks against nonbelligerent shipping."<ref name=Shell>{{cite news|title=U.S. Destroyers Shell Iranian Military Platform in Gulf; Retaliation for Silkworm Attack Called "Measured and Appropriate"|first=Molly|last=Moore|work=The Washington Pos|place=Washington, D.C.|date=20 October 1987|page=a.01}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965887-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025161818/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965887-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=25 October 2012|title=The Gulf Punch, Counterpunch|magazine=TIME|first=Michael S.|last=Serrill|date=2 November 1987|access-date=18 January 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6D61131F933A15753C1A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|title=U.S. Ships Shell Iran Installation in Gulf Reprisal|first=Steven V.|last=Roberts|work=The New York Times|date=20 October 1987|access-date=18 January 2015|archive-date=10 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210174510/https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6D61131F933A15753C1A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/research/theses/kelley07.pdf|title=Better Lucky than Good: Operation Earnest Will as Gunboat Diplomacy|publisher=Naval Postgraduate School|first=Stephen Andrew|last=Kelley|date=June 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627022327/http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/research/theses/kelley07.pdf |archive-date=27 June 2008}}</ref> [[U.S. President]] [[Ronald Reagan]] called the operation "an appropriate and proportionate response" to the Silkworm strike.<ref name="Black">{{cite news|last=Black|first=Norman|date=20 October 1987|title=Reagan defends attack on Iranian platforms in gulf|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7293524//|newspaper=The San Bernardino County Sun|location=San Bernardino, CA|agency=Associated Press|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=21 December 2016|archive-date=10 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210174507/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7293524//|url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> When asked by reporters if the situation constituted a state of war, Reagan replied: "No, we're not going to have a war with Iran: they're not that stupid."<ref name="Black"/>

==International Court of Justice case==
{{Main|Oil Platforms case}}
On 2 November 1992 Iran filed a suit with the International Court of Justice, a legal salvo that began a decade of claims and counter-claims by the United States and Iran. On 6 November 2003 the [[International Court of Justice]] ruled that the use of force against Iranian oil platforms was not justifiable as self-defense under international law: "the actions of the United States of America against Iranian oil platforms on 19 October 1987 (Operation Nimble Archer) and 18 April 1988 ([[Operation Praying Mantis]]) cannot be justified as measures necessary to protect the essential security interests of the United States of America."<ref name=":0" /> 

The Court also ruled that it "cannot however uphold the submission of the Islamic Republic of Iran that those actions constitute a breach of the obligations of the United States of America under Article X, paragraph 1, of the Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights Between the United States of America and Iran,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.parstimes.com/law/iran_us_treaty.html|title=IRAN: The 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights|access-date=20 November 2016|archive-date=11 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511222247/http://www.parstimes.com/law/iran_us_treaty.html|url-status=live}}</ref> regarding freedom of commerce between the territories of the parties, and that, accordingly, the claim of the Islamic Republic of Iran for reparation also cannot be upheld".<ref>{{cite web|publisher=International Court of Justice|url=http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idocket/iop/iopframe.htm|title=Oil Platforms (Islamic Republic of Iran v. United States of America)|access-date=12 December 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061002115258/http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idocket/iop/iopframe.htm|archive-date=2 October 2006}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Bridgeton incident]]
* [[Iran–Iraq War]]
* [[Operation Prime Chance]]
* [[Operation Praying Mantis]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Wise, Harold Lee|title=Inside the Danger Zone: The U.S. Military in the Persian Gulf 1987–88|url=http://www.insidethedangerzone.com|location=Annapolis|publisher=Naval Institute Press|year=2007|isbn=978-1-59114-970-5}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060326004112/http://www.specialoperations.com/Operations/Prime_Chance/Operation_Profile.htm Nimble Archer as part of Operation Prime Chance]
* [http://www.seastory.us/hoel/nimble_archer.html Newspaper clips about Nimble Archer]
* [http://www.navybook.com/no-higher-honor/timeline/operation-nimble-archer/ Photos of Operation Nimble Archer]

{{Coord missing|Indian Ocean}}
{{Iran–United States relations}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nimble Archer, Operation}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Battles and conflicts without fatalities]]
[[Category:Naval battles of the Iran–Iraq War involving the United States]]
[[Category:October 1987 events in Asia]]
[[Category:20th-century military history of the United States]]
[[Category:Iran–United States military relations]]