{"id":113867,"date":"2026-05-14T16:32:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/113867\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T16:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:32:24","slug":"iran-claims-it-deployed-small-submarines-to-cause-more-chaos-in-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/113867\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran claims it deployed small submarines to cause more chaos in Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 A top Iranian navy commander<\/a> claimed the Islamic Republic has deployed some of its small submarines, known as the \u201cdolphins of the Persian Gulf,\u201d in the Strait of Hormuz to wreak further havoc on the critical oil chokepoint, according to state media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The goal is to establish an \u201cinvisible guardian\u201d in the beleaguered waterway, lurk on the seabed there and potentially attack vessels attempting to pass.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Iran has a fleet of at least 16 small submarines. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Those small subs are believed to have crews of fewer than 10 and can each carry two missiles or two torpedoes.<\/p>\n

One key drawback is that they are very noisy, which makes them easier for adversarial navies to track, Bloomberg News reported<\/a>. The subs are a copy of a similar design from North Korea and are known to have maintenance issues, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Iran has spooked most vessels from traversing the Strait of Hormuz. US NAVY\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Strait of Hormuz<\/a> reaches a depth of about 100 meters at its deepest point, and the Persian Gulf doesn\u2019t get much deeper than that either, complicating submarines\u2019 efforts to conceal themselves from sonar.<\/p>\n

Ghadirs, however, are much smaller and displace just 115 tons of water \u2014 a standard metric for submarines \u2014 compared to the 6,000 tons that Los Angeles-class attack submarines displace, Bloomberg noted.<\/p>\n

Iran has created mayhem in the Strait of Hormuz, through which over a fifth of the world\u2019s seaborne oil supplies once flowed annually, in retaliation for Operation Epic Fury.<\/p>\n

The regime has made use of drones and attacks from fast, small boats to deter large oil vessels from traversing the critical waterway.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Last week, he briefly ordered a \u201cProject Freedom\u201d military escort<\/a> of ships through the channel, before stopping that initiative.<\/p>\n

Iran presented a counteroffer to the US<\/a> over the weekend, but Trump quickly panned it as \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Ghadir-class midget submarines are reportedly believed to be noisy and have maintenance issues. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump has continued to convey confidence that the US will get Iran\u2019s remaining enriched uranium before the conflict with Tehran concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll either do the right thing, or we\u2019ll finish the job,\u201d he told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 A top Iranian navy commander claimed the Islamic Republic has deployed some of its small submarines,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[159,34,39,81,101,31237,933],"class_list":["post-113867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-persian-gulf","tag-foreign-policy","tag-iran","tag-persian-gulf","tag-politics","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-submarines","tag-us-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116573893045975922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}