"Iranian Ghadir-class midget submarines deployed" Topic

Iran has confirmed the deployment of domestically built Ghadir-class midget submarines inside the Strait of Hormuz as tensions with the U.S. Navy intensify, according to statements made on May 10, 2026, by Iranian Navy commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani during a naval exercise honoring sailors lost aboard the frigate Dena. The move strengthens Tehran's ability to threaten commercial shipping and naval forces in one of the world's most critical maritime chokepoints by relying on hard-to-detect submarines optimized for shallow-water ambush operations and asymmetric sea denial tactics…

Army Recognition: link

OMG !!! They got minisubs !!! Wow … the US has never had to deal with subs before. We better pack up and go home.

Their little sub(s) posse very little threat along with all of Iran's other remaining combat assets.

Recently very few of Iran's dwindling weapons' inventory are being deployed. And the vast majority have had little to any effect. They are running out of their missiles, drones, their little boats, etc.

Iran's little sub(s) is just another small move to upset some in Congress, the media, etc. Which plays into the narrative and agenda that the US is losing the war, the Pentagon didn't plan correctly, were surprised at what Iran did, this is a quagmire, the sky is falling, etc., etc.

Iran's sub(s) will end up like most of their waterborne assets. At the bottom of the Persian Gulf.

Oh My Lord! It is the Umbrella Corporation from "Resident Evil." That or I guess it could be an escape hatch at the bow?

Doesn't a large red and white disc on the deck of your submarine defeat the whole idea of stealth? I realize that the Navy relies upon sonar and radar and all sorts of electronic tricks to locate submarines, however, bright green with red and white lozenge on the deck is an interesting choice.

We have discussed these before, knew that they developed them partly because they can deploy them in the shallow waters there. We destroyed some of them, but some might have been trailered in suburban neighborhood garages. The deck space is quite limited for parties compared to a pontoon boat however. They have a retro WW2 look. Hopefully, they don't fall in with the school of trained Russian dolphins and slip through.

I don't give Iranian pronouncements much credence.

Mini means short ranged. It means minimal countermeasures. It means less sophisticated sensors.

The only advantage may be that they are so short ranged they are 100% battery, and thus quiet. If they can do a three hour mission submerged from dockside to target and back they might be very hard to detect. They'd be useless against the USN, but they could sink tankers. And I guess that's the point. The announcement is really "we might have an undetectable tanker threat".

But would Iran really torpedo a tanker? It would make them a pariah and… oh, I guess they don't have a lot to lose, do they?

The two main methods of detecting underwater threats are passive and active sonar.
Passive sonar essentially detects the noise emitted by the underwater threat. The noice can be from a number of sources including the power plant and the propeller. Being battery powered, the noise emitted by the power plant is probably low. The propeller is probably not high tech and so could cavitate at high speed, however, I am guessing that these may run at slow speeds and therefore the noise may not be too high.
Also with all of the shipping around and the low depth of the strait, there could be a high background noise which could partially mask the noise.
Passive detection could prove tough. Also I suspect that deploying the long external passive sonar will not be possible in the Strait, so you would be relying on the less capable bow mounted passive sonar.

On the active sonar, it really depends on the size of the target in the direction that the active sonar comes in. A small sub is going to have a small cross section for the sonar to bounce off. Coupled with the low depth of the Strait, active detection could also be an issue.

The Iranian subs are not overly capable, particularly compared to the US navy assets, especially in open ocean. However, the strait is not open ocean. IT is narrow, shallow and noisy. Potentially the worst environment for ASW operations.

Now as to target vulnerability to a hit. Counterintuitively a modern warship is not particularly capable of surviving a hit. They are more capable of avoiding the hit in the first place. I would argue that you are potentially better off being on a large container ship that a modern destroyer if they are hit by one of these mini subs.

Now, I am not saying that there is a high likelihood of one of these subs hitting a modern destroyer, but there is certainly a non-zero chance. IF they do, the damage is also unpredictable. We have seen some significant damage to US ships over recent years by simple low speed collisions.

The problem is that the area is probably the most favorable operating environment that these subs could have, and the least favorable environment for modern destroyers.

The other problem is that in war things can be unpredictable, the enemy can get lucky, US Navy ships can make mistakes in a high tension environment.

Do I think that it is likely that a US Navy ship gets hit by one of these things – NO. Do I think that there is an outside chance that one could – Yes it is possible

They could get lucky … e.g. any given Sunday …

But their fleet of these minisubs will probably try to interfere with the USN, etc. As their little boats try. But I don't think they will last long when the shooting starts. Which could happen any day now.

Another one? They have been acquiring a lot of subs the past couple of months. Most of their fleet has become subs lately.

Saxondog +1, LOL!

Have these IRGCN subs actually do anything yet ? AFAIK = 0. However, we know not to underestimate your enemy. Nor trust them. But with the limited kinetic actions Iran has done. Even before the "ceasefire" … Iran is again bluffing for time.

So their waiting, delaying hoping, dreaming, praying, etc. will pay off. And IMO the US and even the world will be worse off.