Cordesman/Wilner, Iran & The Gulf Military Balance Rev 3
AHC 2/29/12
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Iran’s Naval Forces and Their Role in Asymmetric Warfare Iran lacks modern conventional naval forces – with the exception of its submarines and some of its missile patrol boats. As Figures III.9 to III.11 show, however, Iran’s conventional naval forces are large enough to present a challenge during the initial phases of any major clashes. Iran also and they also has minelayers, as well as advanced mines that can be delivered by any surface vessel – including the stream of dhows that constantly crosses the Gulf. Moreover, many elements of Iran’s naval forces lend themselves to asymmetric warfare, and no assessment of Iran’s capabilities for such warfare is complete without an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of its naval forces. The Strengths and Weaknesses of Iran’s Naval Forces The Iranian Navy had some 18,000 men in 2012. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), this total included two marine brigades of some 2,600 men and a 2,000man naval aviation force. It has bases at Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Kharg Island, Bandar Anzali, Chah Bahar, Bander-e Mahshahar, and Bander-e Khomeini. At the end of 2011, Iran’s surface forces included 3 frigates, 2 corvettes, 11 missile patrol craft, 5 mine warfare ships, over 60 coastal and inshore patrol craft, and 13 amphibious ships. Its naval aviation branch is one of the few air elements in any Gulf navy, having 3 Orion 3PF maritime patrol aircraft and 13 armed helicopters. When combined with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) naval branch, this brought the total maritime strength of Iran to 38,000 men, with significant capabilities for both regular naval and asymmetric naval warfare. Iran’s southern Gulf neighbors also have significant naval strengths, however, and the US can decisively intervene with massively superior force at any time. Iran also has a steadily aging force. It has given the modernization of its lighter naval forces limited priority, but its major surface ships are all old vessels with limited refits and aging weapons and fire-control systems. Since the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran has attempted to compensate for the weaknesses of its surface fleet by obtaining new anti-ship missiles and missile patrol craft from China. Some reports also indicate that it has acquired midget submarines from North Korea, submarines from Russia, and modern mines. Iran has expanded the capabilities of the naval branch of the IRGC, acquired additional mine warfare capability, and upgraded some of its older surface ships. Iran’s exercises have included a growing number of joint and combined arms exercises with the land forces and the air force. Iran has also improved its ports and strengthened its air defenses, while obtaining some logistic and technical support from nations like India and Pakistan. In August 2000, the Islamic republic announced that it had launched its first domestically produced light submarine, which is called the Al Sabehat 15. Iran has stated it can be used for reconnaissance and laying mines.17 Iran’s major active surface ships are now all obsolete to obsolescent. Its main ships consist of two Bayandor- (PF103) class corvettes launched in 1963 and commissioned in 1964. Their weapons control, search/track radars, and sonars have not been modernized since the mid-1960s,
17
Jane’s, “Iran”, 29 October 2001.
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