RIP, U.S. Navy?: How Much Damage Can Iran's Submarines Do in a War?

[rangerrebew]

September 29, 2019

RIP, U.S. Navy?: How Much Damage Can Iran's Submarines Do in a War?

We find out.
by Sebastien Roblin
 

Key Question: Why would Iran invest considerable sums in building its own submarines instead of shelling out for off-the-shelf hardware in Russia or China?


The Iranian military has long planned for a defensive naval war in the Persian Gulf, in which it would leverage its large fleet of fast attack boats toting antiship missiles to launch swarming hit-and-run attacks on adversaries in along Persian Gulf, with the ultimate goal of shutting down passage through the Straits of Hormuz.

Supporting this naval guerilla-warfare strategy are twenty-one indigenously produced Ghadir-class mini submarines, derived from the North Korean Yono class. The 120-ton vessels can poke around at eleven knots (thirteen miles per hour) and each carry two 533-millimeter torpedoes. All in all, shallow littoral waters are very favorable for mini-submarine operations, with interference from rocky shallows and loud surf reducing sonar detection ranges and giving mini submarines abundant opportunities to hide and wait in ambush. On the high end of the capability spectrum, Iran operates three much larger and more capable Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines purchased from Russia in the 1990s. These can comfortably hunt in the waters of the Indian Ocean.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/rip-us-navy-how-much-damage-can-irans-submarines-do-war-74001

[Smokin Joe]

IIRC, even mini submarines are more easily detected from above in shallow water.

The same surf, etc that might mask them on sonar are going to make life aboard unpleasant, too.

[PeteS in CA]

The Indian Ocean is about 27.24 million square miles. Does a CBG cover as much as 20 square miles? Three SSKs cannot effectively patrol even a tenth of that - find a pin-point in a vast ocean. USN carrier planes can refuel mid-air, so a CBG need not stay all that close to Iran.