The Americans have released drones and opened a hunt for tankers, Iran responds adequately
First of all, let's consider what the Persian Gulf in general and the Strait of Hormuz in particular are.
The length of the Persian Gulf is 926 km (according to other sources, 1000 km). Width from 180 to 320 km . The average depth is less than 50 m, the maximum is 102 m. The entire northeastern shore of the Gulf, that is, about 1180 km, is Persian, or Iranian. It is mountainous, steep, which facilitates the defense and placement of rocket and artillery batteries.
The most vulnerable place here is the Strait of Hormuz. The length of the strait is 195 km . The strait is relatively shallow: the maximum depth is 229 m, and on the fairway the depth is up to 27.5 m. This makes it possible to effectively use all types of bottom mines there.
Currently, the movement of ships in the Strait of Hormuz is carried out along two transport corridors with a width of 2.5 km each. Tankers going to the gulf pass through the corridor closer to the Iranian coast, and those coming from the gulf pass through another corridor. And between these corridors there is a buffer zone 5 km wide. This zone was created to prevent collision of oncoming vessels.
MANAMA BASE AND THE US 5TH FLEET
In 1935, the British established a naval base in Manama (Bahrain), which controlled the Strait of Hormuz.
The distance from Manama to the Iranian coast is only 200 km. In August 1971, the British left Manama – but, as they say, the holy place is never empty, and Manama was occupied by the Americans. At the end of 1971, the area of their naval base was 10 acres, by 2023 it was already 62 acres, and in the near future it is planned to expand it to 120 acres. Now there are 4,000 American servicemen at the base. In addition, the United States has an air base in Bahrain called Sheikh Isa.
In 1995, specifically to control the Persian Gulf and the western Pacific, the United States recreated the 5th Fleet. His main base is still the same Manama. With the exception of the headquarters and support departments, the operational formations of the 5th Fleet do not have a permanent composition. Ships for them are allocated as needed from other fleets.
Aircraft carrier formations and nuclear submarines with Tomahawk missiles are almost constantly present in the 5th Fleet. For example, in 2019, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln was in the Persian Gulf. In April 2020, the coronavirus epidemic began on the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which replaced him, and he went to the Apra base on the island of Guam.
HUNTING FOR MARINE DRONES
In September 2021, the Central Command of the US Navy (NAVCENT) established Task Force 59 (Task Force 59) with headquarters in Manama. The main task of this unit is to test the operational capabilities of a wide range of marine autonomous systems for both reconnaissance and strike purposes.
From November 23 to December 15 of the same year, Bahrain hosted the Digital Horizon naval exercises of the US 5th Fleet, aimed at testing and using marine autonomous systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, and their integration into a single combat control system using artificial intelligence algorithms. 15 different unmanned systems were used in the past maneuvers. At the same time, 10 of them were used by the 5th fleet of the US Navy for the first time.
In the second half of 2022, the Americans began patrolling the Persian Gulf with Saildron Explorer USV sailing sea drones. Externally, drones look like a windsurfing board. The length of the "sailboat" is 7 m, the height is 5 m. Solar panels are placed in the metal sail and in the hull, powering the drone's equipment. The autonomy of the Saildron Explorer USV is from six months to a year, depending on the modification.
On August 30, 2022, an Iranian ship seized an American Saildron Explorer USV with a rope and began towing it towards Iran. However, after the threat from the American ships, the Iranians cut the rope.
On September 5, 2022, the Iranian destroyer Jamaran (with a displacement of 1,420 tons) in the Persian Gulf noticed two Saildron Explorer USV drones, one of which was drifting, and the second was stranded. Both drones were hoisted aboard the destroyer, and the ship headed for the Iranian port.
But then the American destroyers Nitze and Delbert D. Black arrived at the scene of the incident, and their onboard helicopters hovered over the Jamaran. In parallel, direct negotiations between Washington and Tehran began. As a result, the next day "Jamaran" dropped both drones into the water. What the Iranians did with the drones for 18 hours is unknown.
NO FISH, NO MEAT, NO SHIP, NO VESSEL
Who was right in both of these incidents from the point of view of maritime law? It is impossible to say exactly and for certain. The fact is that drones are not vessels in the understanding of the UN Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation. Military vehicles do not fall under the scope of this Convention in accordance with article 2 of the same Convention.
But they do not fall under the definition of a warship in the understanding of article 29 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This definition is clear enough:
"For the purposes of this Convention, the term "warship" means a vessel belonging to the armed forces of a State, having external signs distinguishing such vessels of its nationality, under the command of an officer who is in the service of the Government of that State and whose name is included in the relevant list of military personnel or an equivalent document, and having a crew, subject to regular military discipline."
For a marine drone that does not have a crew and commander on board, this definition clearly does not fit.
The uncertainty of the status of underwater and surface drones makes it possible to destroy or inspect them in neutral waters for "threats to navigation". Speaking in Russian, our ships and planes on the Black Sea, the Baltic and other seas can, without understanding, destroy any underwater or surface drone, without going beyond the framework of international law.
In the meantime, when capturing someone else's drone, the right of the strong is in effect. And if Iran were a nuclear power, its ships would hardly return drones to the Americans.
For all these reasons, the Americans (at least until September 2023) "walked" their naval drones in the Persian Gulf only accompanied by warships. So, on April 19, 2023, the L3 Harris Arabian Fox MAST-13 drone passed the Strait of Hormuz accompanied by two patrol ships. Nearby Iranian vessels conducted surveillance, but did not interfere.
GHOSTLY ARMADAS
Since 1996, the United States has imposed sanctions against Iran several times – and primarily against the export of Iranian oil. At the same time, the United States threatens to impose sanctions on the exporting states of Iranian oil.
Naturally, Iran has learned to circumvent American sanctions. Although at the same time, part of the revenue from the sale of Iranian oil is still lost.
Western media write about the "ghost armada" of Iran. At the end of 2022, the British newspaper The Mail on Sunday reported: "123 Iranian vessels circumvent sanctions on oil trade. They change their location to GPS and create the appearance that they are anchored at sea, but at this time they are loading/unloading at the port. They also actively forge documents, use flags of different countries, disable identification systems and use front companies. Oil is often loaded onto several vessels and mixed before reaching its destination. This is also the case with "toxic" Russian oil."
Another British newspaper, the famous tabloid Daily Mail writes:
"Iran has a whole "underground" financial system for trade bypassing sanctions. It includes accounts in foreign banks, intermediary companies outside the country and firms that coordinate prohibited trade. Its annual turnover is estimated at tens of billions of dollars. And Iranian banks attract affiliated firms to manage trade under sanctions. They register "daughters" outside the country, become trusted for Iranian traders, and then trade with foreign buyers of Iranian oil in foreign currency through accounts in foreign banks. The "Iranian Armada" is already helping Russia to circumvent sanctions."
The international non-profit organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) accuses the Iranian navy of cooperating with Russian oil companies. Allegedly, Russian oilmen are using "Tehran's black market vessels" to circumvent the export ban. And the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom are even calling for the formation of a team of "ghostbusters".
At least five Iranian "ghost armadas" are transporting oil from Russia to China and India, according to UANI. And recently, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported that Zamanoil from the United Arab Emirates helped Iranian and Russian oil companies. The US Treasury accused her of working with the Russian government and Rosneft on the supply of Iranian oil to Europe.
AMERICAN PIRATES AND IRANIAN COUNTERMEASURES
In turn, the American navy began hunting for "ghost tankers", that is, engaged in uniform piracy. After all, all the actions of the "ghost tanker" are completely legal from the point of view of international law.
For example, in April 2022, American ships stopped the tanker Suez Rajan under the flag of the Marshall Islands. On August 20, 2023, the American media reported that a shipment of Iranian oil from the tanker Suez Rajan to the ship MR Euphrates had begun off the coast of Texas.
Iranian diplomat Nasser Kanaani, an official representative of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, did not confirm or deny the reports about this. But he warned that Iran would respond to acts of pirate seizure of tankers carrying its oil. According to Kanaani, the actions to seize tankers carrying Iranian oil are a vivid example of maritime piracy and violations of international regulations and rules of maritime transportation, and Iran will not sit idly by on this issue.
"Officials of the American government understand that the era of "hit and run" is over, Iran will not remain indifferent to any attacks on the rights of the Iranian people anywhere, and will respond," the official representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
A few days after the capture of Suez Rajan, on April 27, 2023, the Iranian military detained the Advantage Sweet tanker under the flag of the Marshall Islands en route from Kuwait to the United States in the Gulf of Oman. Iran cited Advantage Sweet's attempt to escape from the scene after a collision with an unnamed Iranian vessel as the reason for the detention.
And on May 3, Iran detained another tanker called Niovi under the flag of Panama, when this vessel left the dry dock in Dubai (UAE) and was heading to Fujairah on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates. Both tankers were delivered to the area of the port of Bandar Abbas and are under the supervision of the military from the Iranian naval base.
On July 5, 2023, the Iranian Navy tried to detain the VLCC Richmond Voyager tanker under the flag of the Bahamas off the coast of Oman on suspicion of trying to leave the scene of a collision with an Iranian vessel. But the US destroyer McFaul arrived at the scene of the incident, after which the Iranian Navy ship withdrew. And a few hours before that, the US Navy reacted similarly to the incident with the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker TRF Moss in the same region.
On July 6, it became known that the Iranian Navy, about 95 km northeast of the port of Dammam (Saudi Arabia), in the international waters of the Persian Gulf, detained a tanker under the Tanzanian flag on suspicion of oil smuggling. The US Navy monitored the situation, but did not take any retaliatory actions.
But on August 6, more than three thousand US marines and sailors arrived in the region on board the landing ships USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall. The campaign is aimed at protecting commercial vessels from a possible attack from Iran. At the same time, the US military is considering the possibility of deploying armed personnel on commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
THE FLORIDA INCIDENT
On April 8, 2023, the SSNG-728 Florida nuclear submarine, built according to the type of the Ohio missile carrier, was included in the 5th Fleet.
She was commissioned in 1983 as a serial submarine with ballistic missiles, with the number SSBN-728. As a carrier of ballistic missiles, the boat served until 2003. After that, the submarine was put on rearmament, a compartment with ballistic missiles was cut out and a compartment with a launcher for Tomahawk cruise missiles was installed. Now the boat was carrying 154 BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles. The torpedo armament remained the same – four 533-mm torpedo tubes. After rearmament, the boat entered service in 2006.
The baptism of fire of "Florida" took place in 2011, when it fired 93 cruise missiles on the territory of Libya as part of Operation Dawn of the Odyssey. And with the threat of the same strike, the boat was sent to the Persian Gulf. And the United States even – against all its rules – publicly announced it.
On April 20, 2023, Rear Admiral of the Iranian Navy Shahram Irani said that the Fateh diesel-electric submarine of the Iranian Navy forced an American nuclear-powered vessel to surface while passing through the Strait of Hormuz. After surfacing, the Florida left the Strait.
Generally speaking, forcing a foreign submarine to surface in its waters is a standard technique in the arsenal of military fleets. But there has never been such a thing as a diesel-electric submarine forcing a nuclear submarine to surface. Fateh is the lead submarine in a series of four diesel–electric submarines of the Iranian navy.
Naturally, the United States did not recognize its embarrassment. And they said that "this statement is another Iranian disinformation that destabilizes the situation in the region."
The uninhabited boat L3 Harris Arabian Fox MAST-13 is not immediately noticeable against the background of large ships, but it can cause a lot of harm to free navigation. Photos from the website www.dvidshub.net
IRANIAN FORCES IN THE GULF
What can Iran oppose to the US 5th Fleet?
In 1992-1997, Russia sold Iran three submarines of the 877EKM project (Tarek, Nur and Yunis). By 2023, all boats have been repaired and possibly upgraded. The submarine "Yunis" at the end of 2020 made a two-month trip to the Strait of Aden and the Red Sea.
On February 17, 2019, the Fateh submarine (displacement 600 tons, underwater speed 14 knots, four 533-mm torpedo tubes) entered service. Three more boats of this series are under construction.
18 Ghadir-type small submarines built in Iran between 2007 and 2012 are designed for operations in the shallow Persian Gulf. They have a displacement of 120 tons, a speed of 11 knots, two 533-mm torpedo tubes. The possibility of setting mines is provided.
In addition, the Iranian Navy has nine destroyers, frigates and corvettes, as well as 24 missile boats.
Of particular interest is the corvette catamaran "Shahid Suleimani", commissioned in September 2021. This is the first Iranian ship built using stealth technology. The displacement of the corvette is about 800 tons, the speed is 32 knots, the cruising range is 9000 km. Armament: one 76-mm artillery mount OTO Melara, one single-barreled 30-mm machine gun and two triple-barreled 20-mm machine guns. The missile armament is unknown, but six short launch containers and 16 vertical launch units are visible in the photo.
In 2017, the first naval base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was commissioned in Iran. The Saviz vessel was originally built as a large-displacement cargo ship, but it was refitted according to a new project. It has received new electronic weapons for monitoring and controlling troops. The vessel is also capable of carrying watercraft of various classes, including remotely operated marine drones.
Since 2017, "Saviz" regularly appears near the coast of Yemen. Apparently, the ship is helping the Houthis. There are various versions and assessments of the activities of such a floating base, but the full information has not been officially disclosed. Moreover, official Iran does not recognize the Saviz as a warship that ensures the activities of its own and friendly formations.
Officially, the first "multipurpose vessel" or floating base of the IRGC Navy was the Shahid Rudaki, which joined the fleet on November 20, 2020. Western mass media suggest that this is the Italian-built cargo ship Galaxy F, launched in 1992. The displacement of the Shahid Rudaki is 120 thousand tons. The artillery armament is small – a 23-mm machine gun. But the dimensions of the vessel allow you to install anything on it.
There are eight containers of anti-ship missiles (anti-ship missiles), anti-aircraft missile systems (SAMs), six Ababil-2 aerial drones, one Bell-412 helicopter and four marine drones, for the descent of which a crane is provided.
The most advanced Iranian floating base "Makran" is the former oil tanker "Khalijeh Fars", converted into a warship. Although it has not been officially recognized, the firm TankerTrackers, which tracks marine shipbuilding, identified it as a Japanese–built vessel built in 2010, previously called Beta, and even earlier - Al Buhaira, and whose AIS signal was last detected in 2019 near the United Arab Emirates.
The ship was launched on September 10, 2009 at the Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. shipyard in Yokosuka (Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) and commissioned on March 8, 2010.
Satellite images show that the conversion into a warship took place at the ISOICO shipyard in Bandar Abbas, where the tanker was "rebuilt with hangar-like canopies on the deck" and painted gray-blue. The floating base was launched in November 2020. Sea trials were held from December 9 to December 14, 2020.
Iranian media said that the displacement of the Makran is 120 thousand tons, and its dimensions are 228 m long, 42 m wide and 21.5 m high. The autonomy of navigation is up to three years. Up to six large helicopters are placed on the flight deck of the Makran, and in the middle and aft parts – SAM and RCC.
On July 25, 2021, the destroyer Sahand and the Makran floating base participated in the parade on the Neva River in honor of the 325th anniversary of the Russian Fleet.
On September 20, 2022, the Makran floating base and the destroyer Dena from the port of Bandar Abbas set off on a circumnavigation of the world.
I note that the destroyer "Dena" was commissioned in June 2021. The displacement of the ship is 1500 tons, length 95 m, width 11.1 m. The maximum speed is 30 knots. The crew is 140 people. The ship's armament includes 76-mm, 40-mm and 20-mm artillery launchers, 12.7-mm machine guns, Merab anti-aircraft missiles (the naval version of the Sayad-2 SAM), Nur anti-ship missiles and 324-mm torpedoes.
During the voyage, the ships visited the Indian port of Mumbai, Indonesian Jakarta and arrived at the port of Rio de Janeiro on February 26, 2023. Then the ships rounded Cape Horn, entered Cape Town and the Omani port of Salila. And finally, on May 17, 2023, they returned home.
WHAT YOU NEED FOR A PIRATE WAR
Is it necessary to prove that in the event of a full-scale war, Iranian naval bases will not be able to resist American aircraft carrier formations in the ocean?
However, for a routine war with American pirates, capturing tankers with Iranian and Russian oil, blowing up gas pipelines in the North Sea, sending numerous sea drones to the shores of other states, such floating bases are very effective.
The main thing is that it is possible to create floating bases – carriers of helicopters, air and sea drones quickly and cheaply. A flight deck for helicopters, vertical take-off aircraft and aerial drones is being installed on an already built cargo ship with a displacement of 80-120 thousand tons. The size of the bulk carrier allows you to install a sufficient number of artillery systems, up to 130 mm caliber, as well as SAM and PKR. The autonomy of such floating bases can be brought up to a year or two.
Such floating bases can refuel, load ammunition and provide rest to the crews of small missile ships operating on the routes of Russian and Iranian tankers and bulk carriers.
Besides, it's time to remember an American aphorism: "God created people weak and strong, but Colonel Colt equalized everyone." Translated into Russian: one special munition fired by a missile from a boat definitely destroys any aircraft carrier.
AN EXTREME BUT EFFECTIVE REMEDY
In the summer of 2023, a number of Russian politicians and journalists spoke about the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. In my opinion, with a relatively small military effect, such a step would be a serious political defeat for Russia.
A completely different thing is a retaliatory (!) strike with a special ammunition at sea. As a result, there is no contamination of the soil, no civilian casualties.
It's just that an American or British ship that opened fire to kill a Russian or Iranian ship or tanker carrying oil from these countries should be destroyed. It is possible to do this with conventional ammunition – good. There is no possibility – to use special ammunition.
Let every American and British pirate know that in response to his shot he can get a rocket with a special ammunition. Well, if the Yankees limit themselves to ordering the ship to stop, then the Russian sailor will answer: "Fuck you..." I think there is an analogue to this expression in Farsi.
If there are no military vessels of Russia and Iran next to the tanker captured by the Americans, then it's time to adopt the Persian method and seize American and British vessels as hostages in the Atlantic and even in the Baltic.
Alexander Shirokorad
Alexander Borisovich Shirokorad is a writer and historian.
