Posted on 10/26/2017 7:18:58 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
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 anti-ship 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 guerrilla-warfare strategy are 21 indigenously produced Ghadir-class mini submarines, derived from the North Korean Yono class. The 120-ton vessels can poke around at 11 knots 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.
Four years ago, Iran also launched its own domestically built Fateh-class submarine. The homemade vessel may lack modern features such as anti-ship missiles or quiet Air Independent Propulsion system, but it does seem to be the genuine article — not something one should take for granted with reports of new Iranian weapons.
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 reason is doubtlessly related to Tehran’s jarring education in how shifting international alliances can throw defense planning askew. Prior to the Iranian Revolution, the government of the shah was lavished with large quantities of top-shelf U.S. weapons, which became rather difficult to maintain after that one little incident in the 1979 involving the American embassy.
When Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, Tehran found itself on the outs with both America and the Soviet Union, and turned to the Chinese for arms — as well as backdoor dealings with Reagan administration officials.
This tumultuous history has created a tremendous impetus for military self-sufficiency in Iran, even if the results in the short term are nothing special compared to extant foreign weapon systems.
The “semi-heavy” Fateh (“Conqueror”) measures between 40 and 48 meters long, and is claimed to displace about 600 tons submerged — putting it in a similar weight class as the small German Type 205 and 206 coastal defense submarines launched in the 1960s and ’70s. It appears to be an elongated version of the Iranian-built Nahang, an unarmed prototype that may currently be serving as a special-operations submarine. Fateh has four bow torpedo tubes with likely access to six to eight reloads, with a circular sonar array situated under the tubes.
Fateh can operate up to 200 meters below the surface — more than adequate for the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. Sources variously place its maximum speed while submerged at between 14 and 23 knots, with the lower estimate seeming more likely.
The Fars news agency claims that Fateh can also operate up to five weeks at sea at a range of up to 3,100 miles, giving it the endurance to venture further afield into the Arabian Sea. However, it’s less clear how long the diesel-electric submarine can sustainably swim underwater without surfacing or snorkeling to recharge batteries.
You can see some media footage of Fateh in the clip below, including what appear to be deck plans at the two-second mark and the interior of the vessel at 13 seconds. The website Covert Shores also offers a detailed analysis of the imagery here.
Despite being launched from the Bostanu shipyards in 2013, Fateh still appears to be undergoing sea trials and has yet to be declared fully operational. Jane’s claimed a second Fateh-class submarine was spotted in satellite photos under construction at the Bandar Anzali naval base on the Caspian Sea, but its current status is unknown.
Also nebulous are Tehran’s plans to produce two 60-meter-long Besat– or Qaem-class submarines displacing 1,200 to 1,300 tons, armed with six torpedo tubes. Other claimed specifications include a 300-meter diving depth and a maximum speed of 23 miles per hour.
This new design was announced in 2008, and was to enter service in 2015. A distinct lack of follow-up reports or imagery since that announcement give the impression the project has either been abandoned or is beset by major delays.
However, an Office of Naval Intelligence report published in March 2017 treats the Besat class seriously, and claims it will enter service with the Iranian Navy with the capability of firing submarine-launched cruise missiles in the next five years. Theoretically, such weapons would significantly increase the striking range of Tehran’s submarine fleet. However, such technology might prove difficult for Iran to develop independently.
A weapon that may be closer to entering service is the Hoot supercavitating torpedo, which reportedly can attain speeds of over 200 miles per hour — around four times faster than a typical modern torpedo. This is achieved by using rocket exhaust heat to vaporize water in the path of the torpedo, allowing it travel in a gas bubble with minimal drag resistance.
The first Hoot tests were broadcast on Iranian T.V. back in 2006, and the weapon reportedly underwent new trials in 2015 and May 2017, though the outcome of those tests is unknown. Defense analysts believe the Hoot to be reverse engineered from the Russian Shkval torpedo.
Past experience demonstrates that Tehran routinely exaggerates and obfuscates the scale of its defense projects, and the timeline in which they will be completed. Nonetheless, the submarine Fateh is tangibly real and looks like it could usefully expand the medium-range capabilities of the Iranian submarine fleet. While the status of the Besat class is more difficult to assess, if it is ever deployed it would mark another capability improvement.
Though the new Iranian boats may remain far from the cutting edge of submarine design, they could still prove dangerous adversaries in the confined and shallow waters of the Persian Gulf.
More importantly, the ongoing effort to domestically produce larger and more capable submarines and submarine-deployed weapons provides more evidence that Tehran is investing long-term efforts into becoming a self-sufficient military power.
This article originally appeared at The National Interest.
Will there by a call to prayer on board? Facing the East?
DE boats running on battery in littoral waters can be extremely dangerous. To get an idea how quiet they are, go out to your garage, open your car hood, and listen to the battery.
These things are basically smart, slightly mobile, deadly mines with range.
Lol.
I always laugh at articles referencing the difficulty of detecting these type of diesel powered subs. Doing so is stupidly easy. I’m just a civilian but figured out the math behind that a long time ago just on a whim.
What a joke.
Not sure why we would need to be in littoral waters anyway because we don’t do beach front landings of airborne units.
five-times-a-day prayers are only for the drones
Time to start building small, inexpensive destroyer escorts again.
We definitely need a war with Iran. Our national debt isn’t big enough, it needs to grow some more. Iraq war cost $3 trillion. Surely we can beat that number with an Iran war. And any excuse to borrow more money from China should be taken
Please elucidate.
They’ve watched waaaay too many John Wayne movies.
The entire Persian Gulf is littoral waters.
But I agree, we should steer clear.
Nice to know that Western Universities helped train the Iranian Engineers who will use that knowledge to design Weapons that put our Military at risk.
Oh yeah, and the Democrat Politicians who gave away our Technology to our Enemies.
Just sayin’...
“The Iranian military has long planned for a defensive naval war in the Persian Gulf,”
Starts off with a lie.
Their intentions have never been “defensive” in the gulf.
They tried putting out minefields and launching silkworm missiles at tankers to blockade the gulf back in the day.
Their intentions have always been belligerent offense.
I know you're just a civilian and all, but have you heard how many times we lose CVs in mock engagements with allied diesel subs?
You might want to share your homework with the DoD is all I'm saying...
"To put it simply, if naval exercises in the last two decades involving foreign diesel-electric submarines had been actual combat, most if not all, U.S. aircraft carriers would be at the bottom of the ocean: as many as 10 U.S. aircraft carriers have been reported “sunk” in these exercises.
The analytically conservative Congressional Budget Office was alarmed enough to officially report that “some analysts argue that the Navy is not very good at locating diesel-electric submarines, especially in noisy, shallower waters near coastal areas. Exercises with allied navies that use diesel-electric submarines confirm that problem…[For example,] Israeli diesel-electric submarines, which until recently were relatively old, are said to always ‘sink’ some of the large and powerful warships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in exercises. And most recently, an Australian Collins-class submarine penetrated a U.S. carrier battlegroup and was in a position to sink an aircraft carrier during exercises off Hawaii in May 2000.”
There have been many such exercise “sinkings” since then, including aircraft carriers Reagan and Lincoln.
Moreover, the problem stems not just from the latest, 21st-century diesel-electric submarine technology from the West, it occurs in the form of various earlier technology submarines built in Russia, operated by China, and/or available to various lesser navies, such as Peru’s, and throughout the world.
The latter navies include North Korea’s and Iran’s. The problem was dramatically demonstrated when a Chinese Song-class submarine surfaced—previously undetected—in the middle of a U.S. carrier battlegroup much too close for comfort to the USS Kittyhawk in 2006."
If is not quiet in the water it dies. If it is quiet and sinks one American Ship a lot of things die, such as their entire surface fleet, their entire air force, all military and naval installations an any damn sub we can find and we can find them.
Pretty sure our guys got it.
Re “mock engagements.” You don’t show all your cards in those. Sun Tzu (paraphrasing): Make the enemy think you are weak where you are strong.
The math and physics just aren’t that tough, and sure our DARPA people are more than smart enough to have figured it out.
I’m not going to give up details on a public forum that potential enemies could see. That said, any DARPA person or the like is free to contact me directly (sure they know how to do so) if you need help. Likelihood such people need my help on this particular issue: 0.01%
PS IMHO the real concern now is degradation of operations and morale, not tech. Think we are turning a corner (in a good way) now with Trump running the show, but it will take some time.
Bad analogy. That battery does not make the prop spin, a motor does and motors produce magnetic pulses in addition to the prop wash creating cavitation of the compressed water. Our stuff can hear an ant fart, not literally, but you get the point.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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I know a couple of sonar guys that would love to chat with you.
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