Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) vessels conducted unsafe and unprofessional actions against U.S. Military ships by crossing the ships\u2019 bows and sterns at close range while operating in international waters of the Persian Gulf, April 15, 2020. U.S. Navy Photo<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Swarm Tactics Show Why Hormuz Is Far From Safe<\/p>\n
LONDON, April 23 (Reuters)\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Iran\u2019s use of a swarm of small, fast boats to<\/p>\n
seize two\u00a0container ships<\/p>\n
near the Strait of Hormuz could undermine suggestions U.S. forces have disabled its naval threat and reveals the challenges facing reopening one of the world\u2019s most important oil export routes.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday\u00a0acknowledged\u00a0that while\u00a0Iran\u2019s conventional navy had been largely destroyed, its \u201cfast-attack ships\u201d had not been considered much of a threat.<\/p>\n
He said any such vessels coming near a U.S. blockade set up outside the strait would be \u201cimmediately ELIMINATED\u201d using the \u201csame system of kill\u201d deployed in the Caribbean and Pacific where U.S. air strikes have hit suspected drug boats and killed at least 110 people.<\/p>\n
Those boats were not attacking large, unarmed commercial ships, however, nor nearly as heavily armed, with\u00a0Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards packing heavy machineguns, rocket launchers and, in some cases, anti-ship missiles.<\/p>\n
Speedboat attacks now form part of a \u201clayered system of threats,\u201d alongside \u201cshore-based missiles, drones, mines and electronic interference to create uncertainty and slow decision-making,\u201d Greek maritime security company Diaplous told Reuters.<\/p>\n
Iran\u00a0was estimated to have hundreds, if not thousands, of these boats before the war, often hidden in coastal tunnels, naval bases or among civilian vessels,\u00a0according to maritime security specialists.<\/p>\n
Iran’s IRGC Navy has released footage of its forces seizing a pair of container ships in the Strait of Hormuz this morning.<\/p>\n
pic.twitter.com\/hAbmTTe8DR<\/p>\n
\u2014 OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical)<\/p>\n
Some 100 or more may have been destroyed since the\u00a0Iran\u00a0war began of February 28, said Corey Ranslem, chief executive of maritime security group Dryad Global.<\/p>\n
Before this week,\u00a0Iran\u00a0had relied on missile and drone strikes to hit shipping traffic around the strait, a route which normally handles 20% of the world\u2019s daily oil and liquefied natural gas supply.<\/p>\n
Those attacks had stopped with the April 8 ceasefire.<\/p>\n
The seizure of the two container ships by\u00a0Iran\u00a0followed Washington imposing a blockade on\u00a0Iran\u2019s trade by sea and the start of it<\/p>\n
Iran-linked oil tankers and other ships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe civilian shipping industry is not equipped to prevent\u00a0Iranian armed forces from seizing vessels,\u201d said Daniel Mueller, a senior analyst at British maritime security company Ambrey.<\/p>\n
Typically, about a dozen boats are used in a seizure operation, he added.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s fast boats now serve as the \u201cbackbone\u201d of\u00a0Iran\u2019s naval strategy, able to deploy rapidly as part of its \u201casymmetrical war against the enemy,\u201d a senior\u00a0Iranian security official told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of their very high speeds, these boats can successfully carry out hit-and-run attacks without being detected,\u201d the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
FAST BOAT LIMITATIONS<\/p>\n
Including this week\u2019s seizures,\u00a0Iran\u00a0has used small, fast boats at least seven times going back to 2019, Ambrey\u2019s Mueller said.<\/p>\n
High winds and swells in the waters off\u00a0Iran\u00a0during summer make it hard to conduct such operations, said one\u00a0Iranian shipping source familiar with the waters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it is very bumpy, they\u00a0(armed forces onboard)\u00a0cannot shoot,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n
They are also ill-equipped to go head to head with a warship, and would likely suffer \u201cvery heavy casualties\u201d in any direct assault on one, said Jeremy Binnie, a Middle East specialist at defense intelligence company Janes.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if they tried to saturate the ship\u2019s defenses by attacking from multiple directions, they would be extremely vulnerable to the air support that would be called in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On paper, guided missile strikes would easily destroy these boats, but shoulder-fired missile launchers would pose a threat to low-flying U.S. aircraft, Binnie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be much harder to eliminate the small boat threat than it was to destroy\u00a0Iran\u2019s larger naval vessels, which were big targets that were relatively easy to find and track and, at most, only had a limited ability to defend themselves from air attack,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The reality for the shipping sector is further disruption as well as elevated insurance costs.<\/p>\n
After the so-called \u201ctanker war\u201d of the 1980s,\u00a0Iran\u00a0increasingly used asymmetric tactics as the\u00a0Iranian navy was effectively destroyed, much as it has been in the current conflict, said Duncan Potts, a director with consultancy Universal Defence and Security Solutions and a former British Royal Navy vice admiral.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the U.S. Navy and the president say, \u2018We\u2019ve destroyed the navy, we\u2019ve sunk a frigate off Sri Lanka\u2019 \u2013 you\u2019ve done that before, but you\u2019ve forgotten that your opposition here went asymmetric. And they\u2019ve perfected it.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Additional reporting by Renee Maltezou, Parisa Hafezi and Alexander Dziadosz; writing by Alexander Dziadosz; editing by Jason Neely)<\/p>\n