How Iran and the U.S. Will Fight at Sea

The U.S. Navy's shipbuilders like to focus in on the China threat. But American ships' most likely foes could be the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, or IRGCN, and its arsenal of 200 potential-suicide boats. Last year, the IRGCN took fifteen British sailors and marines hostage. That made U.S. commanders nervous enough about the IRGCN danger that they let aprankster spark a tense stand-off in the Straits of Hormuz in January.

So what would a fight between the U.S. and Iranian navies look like? Robert Kaplan forecasts:

[Iran's suicide] boats will likely employ a strategy of “swarming” — coming out of nowhere to ambush merchant convoys and American warships in narrow shipping lanes. Iran’s three Kilo-class submarines and four smaller, locally made midget submarines will help out, the latter by mining channels and choke-points. And the most potent weapon the IRGCN may possess is its religious zeal and culture of martyrdom… preparing [them] spiritually for asymmetric combat.

The U.S. Navy is certainly not defenseless against kamikaze warfare… [T]he U.S. has put more machine guns and 25-millimeter gyro-stabilized guns on the decks of warships, modified the 5-inch gun to make it more capable of dealing with high-speed boats, and improved the sensor suite of the Aegis computer-integrated combat system aboard destroyers and cruisers. But Cosgriff cautions that the IRGCN represents an “evolving, thinking adversary” who may employ not only simple swarming tactics but also attacks by fewer platforms that come armed with more sophisticated weapons, like anti-ship missiles and long-range torpedoes.

[Photo: ACIG; spotter: Sullivan]

ALSO:

• Iran Threat: The Monkey Did It!
• U.S. Navy Unsure Iranians Made Threat
• Iran-Navy Clash: The Raw Video
• How Iran Attacks at Sea
• Iranians Tell US Navy: 'I Am Coming At You'
• Navy Crisis Over; Backbiting Begins
• Iran Nabs Brit Sailors