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Iran's Doctrine of Asymmetric Naval Warfare
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy ^ | December 21, 2006 | Fariborz Haghshenass

Posted on 12/22/2006 3:55:22 PM PST by Biscuit85

For more than a decade, Iran has lavished a considerable share of its defense budget on its naval forces (which consist of both regular and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps units), believing that the Persian Gulf will be its front line in the event of a confrontation with the United States. Following a naval war-fighting doctrine that suits its revolutionary ethos, Iran has developed innovative, asymmetric naval warfare tactics that exploit its favorable geographic situation, build on its strengths, and target the vulnerabilities of its enemies.

Revolutionary Naval Warfare

During the Iran-Iraq War, the armed forces of Iran—particularly the Revolutionary Guards (or Pasdaran)—developed a war-fighting doctrine in accord with the country’s revolutionary ideology. Based on Shiite religious concepts, the doctrine reflects Iran’s Alavi and Ashurai heritage. It draws inspiration from Ali (cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad), who chose to avoid confrontation when challenged by Arab rulers of his time, and waited for twenty-four years before assuming the caliphate, as well as from the devotion of his son Hussein, who faced a superior enemy and died in battle on the plains of Karbala on the tenth day of Muharram in the year 680 (Ashura).

Revolutionary Shiite values such as stoic endurance and devotion to the cause are granted equal, if not superior, status to the traditional military principles of mission accomplishment and the achievement of a military objective. According to this doctrine, the mere act of fighting, exerting maximum effort, and fulfilling one’s religious (and national) duty to the fullest is an end in itself. The result or outcome is of secondary importance. For adherents, martyrdom is a welcome prospect. A readiness to die, however, is not considered a substitute for lethality and effectiveness. On the contrary, the Iranian concept of Alavi/Ashurai warfare relies not just on spiritual commitment, but also on high-tech weaponry and innovative tactics—a combination employed to great effect on the ground in southern Lebanon by Iran’s protege, the Lebanese Shiite Hizballah, in its war with Israel this summer.

The most prominent expression of this doctrine was a series of naval battles with the U.S. Navy in April 1988. These took place during the final phases of the Iran-Iraq War, when hopelessly outclassed Iranian forces battled U.S. naval units in the Persian Gulf. Iran incurred heavy losses in the process. The experience taught Iran that large naval vessels are vulnerable to air and missile attacks, confirmed the efficacy of small boat operations, and spurred interest in missile-armed fast-attack craft. It also allowed Iran to expand the use of swarming tactics that form the foundation of its current approach to asymmetric naval warfare.

Naval Swarming Tactics

Swarming tactics are not new; they have been practiced by land armies for thousands of years. Such tactics require light, mobile forces with substantial striking power, capable of rapidly concentrating to attack an enemy from multiple directions and then rapidly dispersing.

Iranian naval swarming tactics focus on surprising and isolating the enemy’s forces and preventing their reinforcement or resupply, thereby shattering the enemy’s morale and will to fight. Iran has practiced both mass and dispersed swarming tactics. The former employs mass formations of hundreds of lightly armed and agile small boats that set off from different bases, then converge from different directions to attack a target or group of targets. The latter uses a small number of highly agile missile or torpedo attack craft that set off on their own, from geographically dispersed and concealed locations, and then converge to attack a single target or set of targets (such as a tanker convoy). The dispersed swarming tactic is much more difficult to detect and repel because the attacker never operates in mass formations.

During the Iran-Iraq War, the Pasdaran navy used mass swarming tactics; as a result, its forces proved vulnerable to attack by U.S. naval and air power. Because of this, it is unlikely that such tactics would be used for anything but diversionary attacks in the future. In today’s Iranian naval forces, mass swarming tactics have largely given way to dispersed swarming.

Dispersed swarming tactics are most successful when attackers can elude detection through concealment and mobility, employ stand-off firepower, and use superior situational awareness (intelligence), enabling them to find and engage the enemy first. This accounts for a number of trends in Iranian naval force development in the past two decades. The first is the acquisition and development of small, fast weapons platforms—particularly lightly armed small boats and missile-armed fast-attack craft; extended- and long-range shore- and sea-based antiship missiles; midget and diesel attack submarines (for intelligence gathering, covert mine laying, naval special warfare, and conventional combat operations); low-signature reconnaissance and combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); and the adaptation of the Shahab-3 medium-range surface-to-surface missile armed with a cluster warhead reportedly carrying 1,400 bomblets, for use against enemy naval bases and carrier battle groups.

Iran has also sought to improve its ability to achieve surprise by employing low-observable technologies (such as radar-absorbent paints), strict communications discipline, stringent emissions control measures, passively or autonomously guided weapons systems (such as the Kowsar series of television-guided antiship missiles), and sophisticated command-and-control arrangements. To support its naval swarm tactics, Iran has encouraged decentralized decisionmaking and initiative, as well as autonomy and self-sufficiency among naval combat elements.

Wartime Operations

In wartime, Iranian naval forces would seek to close the Strait of Hormuz and destroy enemy forces bottled up in the Persian Gulf; therefore speed and surprise would be key. Iranian naval forces would seek to identify and attack the enemy’s centers of gravity as quickly as possible and inflict maximum losses before contact with subordinate units were lost as a result of enemy counterattacks. Geography is Iran’s ally. Because of the proximity of major shipping routes to the country’s largely mountainous 2,000-kilometer coastline, Iranian naval elements can sortie from their bases and attack enemy ships with little advance warning. Meanwhile, shore-based antiship missiles can engage targets almost anywhere in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. To achieve the latter capability, and to improve the survivability of its shore-based missile force, Iran has devoted significant efforts to extending the range of locally produced variants of a number of Chinese shore-based antiship missiles such as the HY-2 Silkworm and the C-802 (from 50 to 300 kilometers and from 120 to 170 kilometers, respectively). It has also introduced the use of helicopter-borne long-range antiship missiles.

To ensure that it can achieve surprise in the event of a crisis or war, Iran’s naval forces keep U.S. warships in the region under close visual, acoustic, and radar observation. The Iranian navy commander—Rear Adm. Sajad Kouchaki, one of the architects of the country’s naval doctrine—recently claimed that Iranian submarines continually monitor U.S. naval movements, frequently at close range, and have even passed underneath American aircraft carriers and other warships undetected. Iranian UAVs also frequently shadow U.S. carrier battle groups in the area.

Conclusion

Current Iranian naval deployments are aimed at deterring an American attack and—in the event of hostilities—entrapping and destroying U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf, at which time U.S. regional bases would be targeted with rocket and missile strikes as well. Iranian naval forces would conduct simultaneous close-in and stand-off attacks, relying on swarming tactics developed and refined during the Iran-Iraq War and highlighted in recent naval exercises in the Persian Gulf. The performance of Lebanese Hizballah guerrillas, who used similar tactics against much larger and more powerful Israeli ground forces in southern Lebanon last summer, provides some insight into what the U.S. Navy should expect in the event of a confrontation with Iran in the Persian Gulf.

Fariborz Haghshenass is an expert on the Iranian military.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: iran; irgc; islam; middleeast; shiite; targetpractice; thepersiangulf; usnavy; wot
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1 posted on 12/22/2006 3:55:29 PM PST by Biscuit85
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To: Biscuit85

In case of a war with Iran, simply destroy anything Iranian floating in the water. Fisherboats, tankers, vessels, uboats, trees... on the bottom of the sea they can rot in assymetrical positions forever and ever.


2 posted on 12/22/2006 3:59:33 PM PST by SolidWood
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To: Biscuit85

The antidote to the strategy is distance -- which is not much hindrance to our naval forces, but makes the small "dispersed swarm" craft have to travel that much further. 5 miles would make the difference.


3 posted on 12/22/2006 4:00:01 PM PST by r9etb
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To: Biscuit85

We'd still kick their a**es.


4 posted on 12/22/2006 4:03:40 PM PST by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)
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To: Biscuit85

Aegis, VLS, and air power.


5 posted on 12/22/2006 4:06:38 PM PST by kerryusama04 (Isa 8:20, Eze 22:26)
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To: Biscuit85
Based on Shiite religious concepts, the [naval warfare] doctrine ... draws inspiration from Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad...

OMG, we are doomed! How can we compete with Shiite concepts or cousin Ali?? LMAO.

6 posted on 12/22/2006 4:10:30 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Biscuit85

bump


7 posted on 12/22/2006 4:15:04 PM PST by 1COUNTER-MORTER-68 (THROWING ANOTHER BULLET-RIDDLED TV IN THE PILE OUT BACK~~~~~)
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To: kerryusama04

so we'll spend a billion dollars to sink a bunch of skiffs...thats asymetric alright.


8 posted on 12/22/2006 4:18:49 PM PST by wildcatf4f3 (If it weren't for lawyers we wouldn't need 'em)
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To: Biscuit85

We may still win such a battle but it will be very expensive win. Iran may well claim the first US Carrier sunk since WWII.


9 posted on 12/22/2006 4:20:51 PM PST by Jeff Gordon (History convinces me that bad government results from too much government. - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: r9etb
The problem is they don't have five extra miles while traversing the straight of Hormuz. There is also a large barrier island right off the coast of Iran to aid somewhat in concealment of said swarms.

I've been through the Strait of Hormuz, and I can tell you, I am concerned about this. Even Artillery from the shore can reach our ships. Our navy has not been designed around this scenario. Add to this all the Clinton-Era officers in high places so afraid of civilian casualties that they don't even allow our troops on "guard duty" on the deck to have ammo in thier 50 cals, and you have a real problem.

10 posted on 12/22/2006 4:24:22 PM PST by SENTINEL (USMC GWI (MY GOD IS GOD, ROCKCHUCKER !!))
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To: Jeff Gordon

Assymetry
They lose their entire Navy and Air Force in an afternoon, and then their army the next morning.


11 posted on 12/22/2006 4:24:22 PM PST by RightWhale (RTRA DLQS GSCW)
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To: Jeff Gordon

Who says they're gonna sink an American Carrier!? The entire Iranian fleet can be destroyed from air within a couple of days.


12 posted on 12/22/2006 4:26:18 PM PST by SolidWood
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To: SENTINEL

Ok. So we won't anchor our carriers in the Straight of Hormuz.


13 posted on 12/22/2006 4:26:43 PM PST by relee (How ironic that the fatal flaw of communism would turn out to be that there is no money in it - AWB)
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To: Biscuit85
Lookout: Sir, we have some rubber duckies in the pond off the port bow. What would you like to do about them?

Captain: Well hell. I reckon we oughta sink 'em. Get Seaman Jones up on deck, and have him knock 'em down.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

14 posted on 12/22/2006 4:27:34 PM PST by Gunny Gene
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To: SolidWood

I hope you are right.


15 posted on 12/22/2006 4:28:27 PM PST by Jeff Gordon (History convinces me that bad government results from too much government. - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: SENTINEL

The Strait has been gamed to death. Iran might block the channel with the last tanker to get through, and the Strait would remain closed for several days after everything Iran has that can shoot farther than a bow and arrow is destroyed, which might be a couple days for 95% and then the rest as they drag it out of caves to try a shot.


16 posted on 12/22/2006 4:28:30 PM PST by RightWhale (RTRA DLQS GSCW)
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To: Biscuit85

This might work...except for US air power. I think a formation of A-10s against iranian small craft would make for some interesting video on YouTube.


17 posted on 12/22/2006 4:28:59 PM PST by gotribe (There's still time to begin a war in Iraq.)
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To: Jeff Gordon

No, airpower can destroy any naval force these people can mount. Not in the cards. Shoot first, ask questions later.


18 posted on 12/22/2006 4:29:12 PM PST by alarm rider ("O thou who changest not, abide with me!")
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To: SolidWood
In case of a war with Iran, simply destroy anything Iranian floating in the water. Fisherboats, tankers, vessels, uboats, trees... on the bottom of the sea they can rot in assymetrical positions forever and ever.

Interestingly enough, I've always advocating total war against Iran, if it comes to that. Before engaging Iranian military forces, Iran needs to be dark, hot, and unable to move. Every oil terminal needs to be destroyed, AFTER their power plants, refineries, refined fuel import facilites, and bridges are completely destroyed.

Mark

19 posted on 12/22/2006 4:35:05 PM PST by MarkL (When Kaylee says "No power in the `verse can stop me," it's cute. When River says it, it's scary!)
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To: Biscuit85
The performance of Lebanese Hizballah guerrillas, who used similar tactics against much larger and more powerful Israeli ground forces in southern Lebanon last summer, provides some insight into what the U.S. Navy should expect

Okay, so they are going to die in large numbers? It will be hard to find civilians to hide behind out on the waves but with Photoshop and AP, Rooters, et al, I guess it really doesn't matter, does it?

20 posted on 12/22/2006 4:38:26 PM PST by Colorado Doug
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