by DAVID AXE

The U.S. Navy’s 13 Cyclone-class patrol boats are 179 feet long, pack two 25-millimeter cannons plus machine guns, grenade launchers and two quadruple mounts for short-range Griffin anti-ship missiles.

Displacing just 330 tons, the Cyclones are arguably the most heavily-armed American warships relative to their size. But for all that firepower, the U.S. Congress refuses to include the patrol boats in the official count of deployable, battle-force vessels.

Congress’ decision to delist the Cyclones— which the legislative body codified in the 2015 military funding bill — is the latest blow in a bureaucratic battle over ship-counting that pits lawmakers versus the Navy.

Since acquiring the patrol boats in the mid-1990s until recently, the Navy struggled to find a place for the diminutive vessels in a fleet dominated by much larger, oceangoing aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers.

The Cyclones spent a decade in a kind of planning limbo. But then in 2003, the United States invaded Iraq — and suddenly the patrol boats found their calling. The waters of the Persian Gulf around Iraq’s sole oil terminal, where tanker ships hook up to load the precious crude, are too shallow for destroyers and cruisers. So to protect the strategic oil facility, the Navy deployed Cyclones.

The tiny but hard-hitting boats proved adept at shallow-water patrols. After the reborn Iraqi navy took over oil-terminal protection, the Cyclones shifted to more general missions in the waters separating Iraq and Iran. Today 10 of the Navy’s 13 Cyclones are forward-based in Bahrain and represent America’s vanguard in its ongoing standoff with Iran over the latter’s nuclear program.

To better prepare the patrol boats for combat in crowded, chaotic waters, in 2013 the Navy began improving the vessels — adding the Griffin missiles to greatly boost the boats’ firepower. To better reflect the Cyclones’ new role and armament, in March 2014 the Navy revised its criteria for inclusion in the official battle fleet … and added to the roster the 10 patrol boats in Bahrain.