North Korea transfering 4 more subs to Iran

Rather old thread, and the closest match I could find.
The iranians say they have launched 4 new Yono midgit subs, they also mention multiple guided missile launchers that have been produced.
And the revol. guards have 12 new small craft, "torpedo & missile cruisers".

Iran for sure wants to widen it's stand in the straigt and gulf down there, however, the means seem really assymetric to me. Lots of small hit and run assets to place multiple stings that may or may not hurt enough.



Iran unveils mini-submarines and torpedo boats

By Lauren Gelfand - 17 August 2010

Iran publically unveiled an additional four Yono-class (Qadir) midget submarines at Bandar Abbas in early August, according to state media reports. Senior defence officials have described the additional boats as a crucial step in reinforcing maritime defences, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz.

Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying: "The mass production of this strategic vessel has been carried out to promote the defence capabilities of the naval forces. With the mass production of this submarine along with various guided-missile launchers, the country's defence production chain is complete. These capabilities will be utilised to help maintain peace, stability and security in the Persian Gulf region and the Sea of Oman."

Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy (IRGCN) announced the commissioning of at least 12 small craft, which it dubbed 'torpedo and missile cruisers'. Four classes are reported: Zolfaqar, Tareq, Ashoura and Zoljanah. Some of these craft are fitted with enclosed torpedo launchers and appear similar to IPS 16 and IPS 18 designs. There were no further details about the nature or class of the vessels immediately available.

Displacing about 120 tons (surfaced), the Yono submarines are shallow-water craft suited for coastal missions.

Iranian-built Ghadir class submarines

Midget Subs have very limited range and duration due to limited battery size and compressed air tanks size. Also it may have difficulty in boyancy control as experienced by British and Japanese midget subs in WW II (Pearl Harbour/ Sydney Harbour and attacked on Nazi battlership in, I think, Norway?). For long distance missions, they will need a mothership as a carrier.

They will not be effective facing US anti-sub patrols in the gulf area.

North Korea normally used the midget subs to cross the sea borders sending their agents ashore, which are short distance away.

Scratch said:

Iran for sure wants to widen it's stand in the straigt and gulf down there, however, the means seem really assymetric to me. Lots of small hit and run assets to place multiple stings that may or may not hurt enough.

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That might be the only possible way Iran can hurt the US navy. It's also part of a successful strategy used in a US naval exercise many years ago in 2002 called Millenium Challenge 2002:

ccL1 said:

That might be the only possible way Iran can hurt the US navy. It's also part of a successful strategy used in a US naval exercise many years ago in 2002 called Millenium Challenge 2002:

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That might be a sound strategy prior to 2002. But after exposing their weakness... the US would no doubt had devise a workable strategy or tactic against such attack... afterall they have eight years counting from 2002 to now.

Midget subs would be useful for use against unescorted commercial shipping, but probably not major surface ships. Though, it depends on what they can arm them with as well. Can these subs be armed with long-range cruise missiles or the Shkval?

Given the size of these submersibles, I doubt they can mount much of a sonar especially after fitting those torpedos. And given their limited weapons load, I doubt cruise missiles would part of their inventory.

These subs have skrewed props however.