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2008-09-11 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran 'master of asymmetric naval warfare'
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Posted by Fred 2008-09-11 00:00|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11127 views ]  Top
 File under: Govt of Iran 

#1 All the more reason to do an Alpha strike on ALL their naval forces and facilities.
Posted by OldSpook 2008-09-11 02:19||   2008-09-11 02:19|| Front Page Top

#2 ION KOMMERSANT > CROATIA SUSPECTED OF SELLING S-300 ADS SYSTEMS TO IRAN.
Posted by JosephMendiola 2008-09-11 03:11||   2008-09-11 03:11|| Front Page Top

#3 I don't get it. Recently read that US has half of the world's naval capability. Britaion's previously awesome navy now is mostly paint holding rusty metal together. Russia has much of the remaining world naval capacity. I can see Iran blocking the strait for a week or two, but then what? After we destroy everything bigger than a ski boat of theirs, what do they do next? Maybe they can ski boat sucide bombers in to blow up the oil tankers? Help me out, here military guys. I don't get what Fariborz Haghshenas is talking about.
Posted by Richard of Oregon 2008-09-11 05:36||   2008-09-11 05:36|| Front Page Top

#4 And in the two decades since the Iran-Iraq War, the US Navy has added Aegis, Tomahawk, GCCS, etc.

Global Security is currently showing the Iranian naval inventory as such:

SS - 8
DD - 0
FF - 4
Corvette - 2
Missile Boat - 40
Patrol Craft - 181

I'd suggest Mr. Haghshenas take a look at Operation Praying Mantis. There can be asymmetry in naval warfare (sub vs. surface, mines vs. everything), but boghammers don't get to blend in with the local populace; they kind of stick out on the ocean.

Also, the last line makes no sense. Typically, in warfare, the greater the damage your opponent does to you lessens the scale of your response because, like, you know, your stuff got blown up and isn't around to respond anymore.
Posted by Dreadnought 2008-09-11 06:06||   2008-09-11 06:06|| Front Page Top

#5 The best tactic for Iran would be mines.

Mines are extremely cost effective. All they would need is a few oil tankers down.

It would also be a slow tedious process to get rid of them.
Posted by BernardZ 2008-09-11 08:04||   2008-09-11 08:04|| Front Page Top

#6 Yeah, but we and most other legitimate navies have mine sweepers. Sweeping a sea lane wouldn't be that hard, and ships don't get out of the sea lane. It sounds stupid, but in the middle of the ocean they stay in the sea lanes that are only, say, half a mile wide.
As for the swarming that they plan to do with small boats: 500 marines on the deck of a ship could shoot a lot of rubber dinghies.
Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-09-11 08:33||   2008-09-11 08:33|| Front Page Top

#7 I think they're talking about suicide speedboats and antiship missiles.

I'm sure nobody in Annapolis has ever considered such things, since they're all such dummies -- not nearly as bright as Iran's Republican Guards.
Posted by Fred 2008-09-11 08:53||   2008-09-11 08:53|| Front Page Top

#8 Seems like more MSM spin and propaganda to keep anyone from hitting Iran.
Posted by DarthVader 2008-09-11 09:42||   2008-09-11 09:42|| Front Page Top

#9 Sounds like an OPEC conspiracy. Besides trying to delay any strike against them, the threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz will drive up the price of oil again.
Posted by Danielle 2008-09-11 10:43||   2008-09-11 10:43|| Front Page Top

#10 Asymmetric naval warfare = On your back, on the bottom, looking up at the opposition's hull.
Posted by Grunter 2008-09-11 12:09||   2008-09-11 12:09|| Front Page Top

#11 Here's his report if any one wants to read it. If I'm in the Iranian navy, I don't think I would. Words like "martyrdom", "kamikaze", "suicide" and "does not bode well for their survival" show up. A lot.
Missiles and mines. Everybody else seems to end up dead.

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC04.php?CID=298
Posted by tu3031 2008-09-11 12:56||   2008-09-11 12:56|| Front Page Top

#12 our minesweeping capabilities are way down from even Vietnam timeframe. I believe all the MC-53 assets have been retired w/out replacements (H-53 helicopters towing sleds to detect / explode mines) and there are only a few operational minesweepers.
Posted by USN, Ret. 2008-09-11 13:49||   2008-09-11 13:49|| Front Page Top

#13 Any ship can be a minesweeper....

Once.

(From Murphy's laws of naval combat)
Posted by DarthVader 2008-09-11 14:41||   2008-09-11 14:41|| Front Page Top

#14 Actually, Iran pioneered that approach with children and land mines in the Iran-Iraq War.
Posted by Darrell 2008-09-11 14:52||   2008-09-11 14:52|| Front Page Top

#15 WTF is assymetrical naval warfare?
Posted by James Carville 2008-09-11 15:22||   2008-09-11 15:22|| Front Page Top

#16 Their boats get blowed up and our ships don't.
Posted by mojo">mojo  2008-09-11 15:31||   2008-09-11 15:31|| Front Page Top

#17 In this context, "asymmetric naval warfare" means kamikaze swarms of small boats and planes to take out US naval vessels. However, against CIWs, 5-inch primary guns, .50 caliber machine guns, Standard missiles, Penguin missiles, and the like, the Iranian swarm rapidly becomes chum. That view of the Iranian ability to attack makes one major assumption : that Iranian assets will be immune from counter-strike operations, both before and during their swarming. Tomahawks and 500-lbs JDAMs make that most unlikely.
Posted by Shieldwolf 2008-09-11 18:20||   2008-09-11 18:20|| Front Page Top

#18 Good job Aegis cruisers don't have a large steerable EM source, otherwise they could cook incoming small ships!
Posted by Bright Pebbles 2008-09-11 18:28||   2008-09-11 18:28|| Front Page Top

#19 I suspect the study is also perhaps giving too much weight to Iran's claims of mini-sub capability.
Posted by Snaing Stalin2919 2008-09-11 19:50||   2008-09-11 19:50|| Front Page Top

#20 I'd be asking where Fariborz gets his money ....bet he has a supplemental income?
Posted by Frank G">Frank G  2008-09-11 21:05||   2008-09-11 21:05|| Front Page Top

#21 
A US-based think tank says Iran's navy forces are capable of waging a unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces.


BFD. So is any other country. Or a few people with enough financial backing to buy some explosives.
Posted by Mike N. 2008-09-11 21:17||   2008-09-11 21:17|| Front Page Top

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