Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Iranian Midget Submarine



Well, from Iran's terrible taste in camouflage and their imminent status as a nuclear power, we move to Iranian Naval power. The above is the Ghadir-class midget submarine. The powers that be in Iran have sought for several years to find a way to fight the Navies of the West, especially the US, in the waters near Iran. Despite the rather huge disparity in Naval power, the Iranians have several advantages in this theoretical battle. The waters of the Persian Gulf are relatively shallow and busy, making it harder for big subs to hide and hard for them to use acoustic methods to search for enemy subs. Also, in a potential conflict, the West must not only defeat the Iranians, but also keep open the vital sea lanes and prevent an ecological disaster from destroyed oil infrastructure. Whereas the Iranians would have a major victory in the eyes of many if they are able to sink even a few Western warships.



Well, to the specifics of this craft. The Ghadir is a class of midget diesel/electric submarines manufactured in Iran. It is fairly accepted that despite the Iranian propaganda machine's claim that the sub was designed by Iranian engineers, the sub was built from North Korean plans and with their technical expertise. And before we snicker into our hands about our friends the North Koreans, keep in mind that they were able to sink a South Korean corvette, the Cheonan, with a similar sub.

The Ghadir is named after Ghadir Khumm a Shiite holy site in Saudi Arabia.

There are 11 Ghadirs in service and more on the way, with new subs delivered in 2009 and 2010. They are about 90 feet long and have a crew complement of 18. While the sonar and sensors and so forth are unknown at this time, we can probably expect them to be based on older Russian and Chinese equipment, like most of the Iranian arsenal. The Iranian state-owned media claims that the subs are "stealth" and capable of evading sonar, but I am going to chalk that up with other, similarly wild claims about the indigenous weapons from Iran. The sub has two torpedo tubes and could likely only carry two torpedoes. It has been said that the Ghadir can also fire tube launched missiles. While the Ghadir is not the state of the art, it could still be a formidable weapon, especially employed in groups. Recently, a war game showed that swarming tactics using small, fast, torpedo and anti-ship missile armed boats could be a serious threat to a US Carrier Group. However, the US Navy is pretty much the world master in anti-submarine warfare, and in any kind of large scale combat, I would expect the loss rate of this little sub to be very high. If it was located, its chance of getting away is small, and if hit with any modern ASW weapon, it would likely sink in a minute or two, if it was not immediately torn in half. Its only hope is that its size could help it hide in shallow water. The Ghadir and the North Korean Yono-class are not to be underestimated, but you wouldn't get me into one. It is apples and oranges, but no Japanese midget subs survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, and that was hardly the best day for the US Navy.

North Korean Yono-class submarine

21 comments:

  1. Very small makes a WW2 U Boat seem big.

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  2. Is there any relationship with North Korea?

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  3. They dont need to survive, if one of this fuckers sinks one frigate, a destroyer or even an auxiliary ship, the midget submarine payed itself. even if its destroyed minutes later

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  4. Iran never atacked a country. last 10 years USA attacked: Iraq, Afghanistan, Lybia. In Iraq and Afghanistan millions of DEATH!! so who is aggrasive? I was shocked when i was thinking about it. Because Iran did nog attack any country!!

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    1. Then what do you call 9/11

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    2. 9/11

      What a joke...

      Queen of Drama = US

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    3. Iran hasn't used it's military to directly attack any other country, but has funded, trained and equipped radical Islamists for many years. They did and have taken part from the shadows in numerous other conflicts such as in Iraq. They were also engaged in an overt war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988. They are far from innocent and peace loving. They openly support and demand Islamic domination of the world with the collapse of all western civilization and the death, enslavement or subjugation and forced conversion of untold numbers of Jewish and Christian people. They, along with North Korea are a focus of much of the evil in the world. You are a nincompoop.

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  5. You know, normally, I would simply not approve a comment like the one above from Feb 23. But today I will so that I may refute its idiocy. The claim of millions of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan is sick, false and only worth hearing to refute it as loud as possible. Shame on you for promoting such lies.

    The Libya war: a European-led NATO venture, supported by the UN to stop the slaughter of thousands of civilians by a power mad rapist dictator. Maybe if Iran worked to help rid the world of Gaddaffi and his ilk it wouldn't be the world's most hated country. Instead, they use spies to trick the Lebanese and Syrians and Iraqis to throw their lives away for the glory of the Ayatollah. Iran is guilty of many, many deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, not combat/war deaths, but suicide bombs in mosques and markets and murders of normal men and women that were lined normal up and shot in the head for the crime of being Sunni or a Kurd or a Christian or working with the only legitimate gov't that Iraq has had in 30 years (thanks the the money and blood of the USA and our allies...yes you are welcome)
    I would say that I hope one day freedom might come to your country, but the truth is you don't deserve it.
    In short : FUCK YOU.

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  6. Yup. Sure are. That is why we haul ass around the Persian Gulf EVERYDAY, because we quake with fear of the Great Ayatollah and his minions. You just keep thinking that, chief.

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    1. Iran is a peaceful nation.
      Us policy is a total failure and has been since the USA emerged as a power.
      How could such a great nation drop so low ?
      You have some soul searching to do...

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  7. Iran either controls or at least gives vast amounts of financial and military support to Hezbollah, an organization that has repeatedly gone out of their way to attack civilian targets.

    Iran has mined international waters and threatens to starve the world of energy by closing the Straights of Hormuz on a almost weekly basis.

    As we speak, the Ayatollah's SS (the Revolutionary Guards/ Quds Force) is guarding the Butcher of Aleppo, Bashar al Assad. It is almost certain that Iranian death squads are murdering civilians in Syria as I write this.

    Do you call that peaceful?

    I call it cowardly.

    Also here are some highlights of USA policy:

    It was the most important factor in crushing the fascist empires of the Nazis, Japanese and Italians in WWII.

    It ended the Cold War without it becoming a nuclear war.


    Troll harder next time.

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  8. Muneeb(gprs.1947@gmail.comNovember 29, 2012 at 5:18 PM

    Dude....! USA is responsible for the civil war in africa,iran,libiya,syria...!
    Not that open war in afganistan,iraq vietnam,gaza....!
    Iran should not take such a small revenge...?
    U ppl are killers of millions of innocent ppls....! Nd america wil have to pay for that...!

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  9. You see, I could have not approved this comment, but instead, here it is and all 50 people who read this blog can now see how stupid you are. I win.

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  10. dont forget iran is a super power......REAL SUPER POWER

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  11. Anonymous, you must be smoking too many hookahs full of crack...The Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force half drunk on beer, fighting with canoes and hockey sticks would be able to kick Iranian ass...truly as Kevlar posts...you are a dumb ass.

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  12. Anonymous, the Canadian military, depleted as it may be, after a few beers and fighting in canoes with hockey sticks is a far greater power than Iran. Iran a super power...yah...right after Jamacia..you must be smoking crack in your hookahs.

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  13. quite humorous how muslims decide to spam anything that mentions their part of the world , with outlandish claims, baseless bragging and childish rants. like they say; big rants, small, well, let's leave that to the imagination . its sort of like their views of reality.

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  14. china will fuck the USA AND THE REST OF THE WORLD USA CANT DEFEAT CHINA>>.

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    1. yeah china with there ww2 ships and planes yeah right, we will fuck china up any day of the week

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