WASHINGTON — A top Iranian navy commander claimed the Islamic Republic has deployed some of its small submarines, known as the “dolphins of the Persian Gulf,” in the Strait of Hormuz to wreak further havoc on the critical oil chokepoint, according to state media.
The goal is to establish an “invisible guardian” in the beleaguered waterway and lurk on the seabed there and potentially attack vessels attempting to pass.
Iran is known to possess at least 16 Ghadir-class midget submarines in its fleet, which are designed to operate in shallow waters, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Those small submarines are believed to have a crew of fewer than 10 and can carry two missiles or two torpedoes.
One key drawback is that they are very noisy, which makes them easier for adversarial navies to track, Bloomberg News reported. The subs are a copy of a similar design from North Korea and are known to have maintenance issues, according to the report.
The Strait of Hormuz reaches a depth of about 100 meters at its deepest point, and the Persian Gulf doesn’t get much deeper than that either, complicating submarines’ efforts to conceal themselves from sonar.
Ghadirs, however, are much smaller and displace just 115 tons of water — a standard metric for submarines — compared to the 6,000 tons Los Angeles-class attack submarines displace, Bloomberg noted.
Iran has created mayhem in the Strait of Hormuz, where over a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies once flowed through annually in retaliation for Operation Epic Fury.
The regime has made use of drones and attacks from fast, small ships to deter large oil vessels from traversing the critical waterway.
President Trump has ordered a blockade of all Iranian ships seeking to get through the strait in response, as part of an effort to ramp up pressure on the regime.
Last week, he briefly ordered a “Project Freedom” military escort of ships through the channel, before stopping that initiative.
Iran presented a counteroffer to the US over the weekend, but Trump quickly panned it as “unacceptable.”
Trump has continued to convey confidence that the US will get Iran’s remaining enriched uranium before the conflict with Tehran concludes.
“They’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job,” he told reporters Tuesday.
