The Tanker War of the late 1980s, which saw the same weapons and problems faced today as today's US Navy and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The conflict began when Iraq’s Saddam Hussein launched an invasion in 1980 and began attacking Iranian oil tankers. Both sides responded by attacking neutral merchant ships transporting supplies and arms to Iraq, much of those via Kuwait. Kuwait requested foreign help to protect its ships from being hit, and the Soviet Union initially helped, but Washington decided to reflag Kuwaiti ships as American, enabling them to get US Navy protection under federal law. However, before escort missions began, an Iraqi warplane mistakenly mistook the US warship for an Iranian target and fired two Exocet anti-ship missiles into it. The incident highlighted how in war mistakes can have catastrophic consequences.