Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) or Revolutionary Guards' Navy (Persian: نیروی دریایی سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی), acronym NEDSA (Persian: ندسا), consists of 20,000 marines and 1,500 boats and fast attack boats separate from the regular Navy of Artesh assuming control over Iranian maritime operations in the Persian Gulf.[5] IRGC's Navy has steadily improved its capabilities to support unconventional warfare and defend Iran's offshore facilities, coastlines, and islands in the Persian Gulf.[6][7]
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Navy | |
---|---|
Founded | September 1985[1] |
Country | |
Branch | Navy |
Role | Naval warfare, Maneuver warfare[2] |
Size | +20,000 (2020)[2] |
Part of | Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps |
Garrison/HQ | Tehran[3]:17 Bandar Abbas[4]:15 |
Commanders | |
Current commander | Commodore Alireza Tangsiri |
Insignia | |
Ensign | |
Jack | |
Aircraft flown | |
Cargo helicopter | Some Bell 206 (AB-206) Jet Ranger[2] |
Multirole helicopter | 5 Mil Mi-17 Hip[2] |
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps |
---|
Command |
Supreme Leader of Iran Senior officers |
Military branches |
Ground Forces Aerospace Force Navy Quds Force Basij |
Intelligence agencies |
Intelligence Organization Intelligence Protection Organization |
Personnel |
Ranks insignia |
Facilities |
Imam Hossein University Baqiyatallah University University of Command and Staff |
Jane's recognizes the IRGCN as the resuscitator of fast inshore attack craft (FIAC) in the modern era, as well as the most prominent practitioner of "small boat swarm tactics that combine speed, mass, co-ordinated manoeuvre, low radar signature, and concealment" among naval forces of the world.[8]
Overview
IRGC Navy and Artesh Navy overlap functions and areas of responsibility, but they are distinct in terms of how they are trained and equipped— and more importantly also in how they fight. The Revolutionary Guards Navy has a large inventory of small fast attack craft, and specializes in asymmetric hit-and-run tactics. It is more akin to a guerrilla force at sea, and maintains large arsenals of coastal defense and anti-ship cruise missiles and mines.[5][3]
It has also a Takavar (special force) unit, called Sepah Navy Special Force (S.N.S.F.).
Equipment
Watercraft
- Thondar-class missile boats (10), with 2 twin launchers with C-802A (Ghader) anti-ship missile and 2 AK230 close-in weapons systems[2]
- Tir II (IPS 18) torpedo boats (10)
- IPS-16 Peykaap-class Zolfaghar torpedo boats (10)
- Boghammar patrol boats
- Rigid-hulled inflatable zodiac commando boats
- Type Seraj speedboats missile & torpedo boats (12), based on the Bladerunner 51 speedboat
- Catamaran Shahid Nazeri[9]
- Fast attack craft of the IRGC
- Fast attack craft of the IRGC
Coastal anti-ship missiles
- Noor, based on the Chinese C-802 (+)
- Kowsar, based on the Chinese C-701 (+)
- Kowsar, based on the Chinese TL-10 (+)
- Nasr-1, based on the Chinese TL-6 (+)
- HY-2 Silkworm (+)
- Qader, medium-range anti-ship cruise missile
- Persian Gulf (Khalij Fars) , Anti ship ballistic missile (ASBM) based on Fateh-110.
- Firing Nasr-1 Missile from a truck launcher in Velayat-90 Naval Exercise
Torpedoes
- Hoot, can be launched from IRGCN speedboats and torpedoboats
Facilities
It is believed that the IRGC's Navy has facilities on the following islands:[11]
Commanders
Rank | Name | Tenure |
---|---|---|
None | Hossein Alaei | 1985–1990 |
Commodore | Ali Shamkhani | 1990–1997 |
Commodore | Ali-Akbar Ahmadian | 1997–2000 |
Commodore | Morteza Saffari | 2000–2010 |
Commodore | Ali Fadavi | 2010–2018 |
Commodore | Alireza Tangsiri | 2018–present |
History
Iran–Iraq War
During the "Tanker War" phase of the Iran–Iraq War, beside the regular Iranian Navy, IRGC started employing swarm tactics and surprise attacks using Boghammar speedboats fitted with rocket launchers, RPGs, and heavy machine guns. Attacks on Kuwaiti tankers, an Iraqi ally, eventually dragged the US Navy into the Persian Gulf to escort Kuwaiti tankers. As a response, IRGC ordered mining west of Farsi Island on the route of the very first caravan—the Kuwaiti supertanker SS Bridgeton escorted by four US warships—which successfully hit the tanker itself.[12][13][14]
British Royal Navy
On 21 June 2004, eight sailors and Royal Marines were seized by forces of the Revolutionary Guards' Navy while training Iraqi river patrol personnel in the Persian Gulf.[15] On 23 March 2007, fifteen sailors and Royal Marines from HMS Cornwall were seized by forces of the Revolutionary Guards' Navy in the Persian Gulf.[16]
United States Navy
On 7 January 2008, US officials claimed five Iranian speedboats 'harassed' United States Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf. IRGC speedboats made threatening moves and in one case even came within 180 meters of US warships. The US Navy also claimed to have received a radio transmission from Iranian boats saying: "I am coming at you. You will explode in a couple of minutes". After this US ships were said to have taken up their gun positions and were ready to open fire at one of the boats when the Iranians turned away and one of the Iranian speedboats (allegedly) dropped white boxes into the water in front of the U.S. ships, it was not clear what was in the boxes.[17]
Iranian officials and military commanders later downplayed the incidents as normal and denied having sent the radio transmission. After the US released a video showing Iranian speedboats swarming US ships in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran released its own video of the incident after suggesting the US video was staged.[18]
On 12 January 2016,10 American sailors were apprehended by IRGC officials off the coast of Farsi Island, which doubles as a naval installation for the IRGC. American officials stated that the sailors were on a training mission when one of their boats experienced a mechanical failure. During this time the vessel drifted into Iranian territorial waters spurring IRGC naval units to respond and apprehend the sailors with both vessels. US Secretary of State John Kerry engaged in a phone call with Iranian officials to defuse the situation. Iranian officials said that the sailors were in custody, but would be freed within hours, understanding that the incident was a mistake.[19]
In 2019, the IRGC Navy allegedly carried out a series of attacks on international vessels in the Gulf of Oman and seized vessels taking them to Iran.[20][21] As a result the United States started the International Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) which increases overall surveillance and security in key waterways in the Middle East, according to the Deputy Secretary of Defense Michael Mulroy.[22]
2019 Persian Gulf crisis
References
- Sinkaya, Bayram (2015), The Revolutionary Guards in Iranian Politics: Elites and Shifting Relations, Routledge, p. 121, ISBN 978-1317525646
- The International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) (2020). "Middle East and North Africa". The Military Balance 2020. 120. Routledge. pp. 348–352. doi:10.1080/04597222.2020.1707968. ISBN 9780367466398.
- Haghshenass, Fariborz (September 2008), Iran’s Asymmetric Naval Warfare (PDF) (Policy Focus), Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Iranian Naval Forces: A Tale of Two Navies (PDF), Office of Naval Intelligence, February 2017, ISBN 978-0160939686
- Michael Connell (12 March 2013), Gulf III: Iran’s Power in the Sea Lanes, The Iran Primer, United States Institute of Peace, retrieved 5 January 2016
- Hossein Aryan (15 November 2011), The Artesh: Iran’s Marginalized and Under-Armed Conventional Military, Middle East Institute, retrieved 15 December 2015
- "Iran navy heightens security in Gulf territorial waters". news.xinhuanet.com. Xinhua. 1 March 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
- Scott, Richard (March 2014), "Surviving the Swarm: Navies Eye New Counters to the FIAC Threat" (PDF), Jane’s Navy International, Jane's Information Group, 119 (2): 20–27, ISSN 2048-3457,
Indeed, the IRGCN's unconventional use of these craft in the Gulf's 'tanker wars' of the late 1980s can in hindsight be seen as marking the birth of the fast inshore attack craft (FIAC) in the modern era. However, there is no doubt that the asymmetric surface threat has taken on increased significance over the past decade, with the IRGCN still recognised as the foremost –though by no means only– practitioner of small boat 'swarm' tactics that combine speed, mass, co-ordinated manoeuvre, low radar signature, and concealment. Moreover, the IRGCN has continued to invest significantly in FIAC platforms and weapons and to exercise this capability regularly in wargames in the Gulf.
- Biggers, Chris (27 April 2017). "Shahid Nazeri Deploys Near the Strait". bellingcat. Archived from the original on 28 April 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
Satellite imagery shows Iran's high speed catamaran, Shahid Nazeri, at Bandar Abbas, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp Navy (IRGCN) First Region naval base.
- "Iran unveils seaplane used for attacks, surveillance". ynet. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
- John Pike. "Pasdaran – Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)". globalsecurity.org. Retrieved 8 October 2015.
- Crist, David (2013). The twilight war : the secret history of America's thirty-year conflict with Iran. New York: The Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1-101-57234-4.
- Hakimi, Erfan. "America's reputation explosion in the Persian Gulf". www.borhan.ir. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
- Gibson, Bryan R (2010). Covert Relationship: American Foreign Policy, Intelligence, and the Iran-Iraq War, 1980–1988. Praeger. p. 202. ISBN 978-0313386107.
- "Timeline: UK-Iran relations". BBC News. 23 March 2007. Retrieved 28 March 2007.
- "UK sailors captured at gunpoint". BBC News. 23 March 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
- Starr, Barbara (7 January 2008). "Iranian boats 'harass' U.S. Navy, officials say". edition.cnn.com. CNN. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
- Fars News Pentagon Video on Iran-US Confrontation a Clumsy Fake 9 January 2008
- "Pentagon: 2 U.S. Navy Boats Held by Iran Military". NBC News.
- US releases new images from suspected attacks on Gulf tankers aljazeera.com
- Iranian republican guard seizes foreign oil tanker persian abcnews.go.com
- Putin’s Gulf security plan depends on Trump al-monitor.com
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Navy of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. |