U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly boasted that Iran’s navy was almost entirely destroyed in the war, but he has largely ignored the fact that another Iranian naval force — that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), rather than the regular Iranian navy — remains operational and continues to pose a significant threat to ships and tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC /navy relies on small, fast boats that are hidden in fortified bases along Iran’s coastline or on islands in the strategic waterway. Although the U.S. military has sought to destroy them as well, it has acknowledged that only about half have been sunk so far, without providing exact figures.
Using these boats, which are sometimes armed with missiles or drones, along with concealed launch sites near the strait’s shores, Iran has continued to enforce its blockade of the strategic passage through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply normally flows.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval exercise with Speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz in 2015
(Photo: From Wikipedia)
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The exact number of fast boats in the IRGC fleet is unclear, with estimates ranging from several hundred to several thousand. “They are hard to count,” The New York Times wrote Saturday in a report describing the vessels as “small, fast and agile,” capable of quickly disappearing after carrying out attacks — leading some to nickname them a “mosquito fleet.”
Saeid Golkar, an expert on the Revolutionary Guards at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, told the Times that the IRGC navy operates as a form of maritime guerrilla force. “It is focused on asymmetrical warfare, especially in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “So, instead of relying on big warships and classic naval battles, it depends on hit-and-run attacks.”
During the war, at least 20 vessels reportedly were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, with the IRGC generally not claiming responsibility. Most of the attacks are believed to have been carried out by drones launched from land rather than from the small boats. Either way, the boats remain a significant threat to traffic in the strait, and the United States has struggled to target them, partly because they are difficult to identify in satellite imagery. The New York Times reported that the vessels are also docked “along piers within deep caves excavated along the rocky coastline, ready to be deployed in minutes.”
Adm. Gary Roughead, a retired senior U.S. Navy official, told the newspaper: “It remains a disruptive force. You never quite knew what they were up to or what their intentions were.”
Iran’s fast boats have been a nuisance in the Persian Gulf for decades. The IRGC Navy was established in 1987, several years after the Guards themselves were founded by Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Distrusting the regular military and fearing it would not protect the Islamic Revolution, Khomeini had already established the Guards’ ground forces in 1979.
Ship attack off the coast of Sri Lanka
(Photo: US Department of War)
Farzin Nadimi, an expert on the IRGC Navy at the Washington Institute, told The New York Times that the naval force was created during the Iran-Iraq War, after Iran’s regular navy refrained from attacking oil tankers belonging to Iraq’s allies, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Eventually, such attacks did increase, marking one of the first attempts by Iran’s regime to disrupt oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
The United States responded at the time by sending warships to escort tankers. In 1988, in an incident that escalated tensions with Washington, the U.S. warship USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian mine and sank, prompting the U.S. to launch Operation Praying Mantis, in which it destroyed several Iranian naval vessels. Three years later, during the first Gulf War, Iran watched as the U.S. decisively defeated the Iraqi army. According to Nadimi, these events convinced Iran it could not win a direct confrontation with the U.S. military — leading it to develop its fleet of small, fast boats instead.
The IRGC Navy has about 50,000 personnel and operates across five separate zones of responsibility along the Gulf. It also maintains a presence on roughly 38 islands under Iranian control. According to The New York Times, 10 fortified and “well-hidden” bases have been built for the fast boats. One base, on Farur Island, serves as headquarters for the IRGC naval commando unit, Sepah, whose equipment and uniforms were modeled on U.S. commandos. “The IRGC Navy has always believed it is on the front line of the confrontation with the ‘Great Satan,’ and it has maintained constant friction with U.S. forces in the Gulf,” Nadimi said.
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A small boat sails next to a tanker ship near the Iranian island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iran
(Photo: Asghar Besharati/AFP)
According to the report, Iran’s earliest boats were civilian vessels that were converted and fitted with machine guns or grenade launchers. Over time, however, purpose-built boats were developed, along with mini-submarines and unmanned surface vessels. Iran claims some of its boats can reach speeds of more than 100 knots — about 185 km/h. In recent years, the IRGC Navy also has developed larger vessels, such as the drone carrier Shahid Bagheri, which was converted from a tanker and, like about 90% of Iran’s regular navy, was targeted during the war.
One scenario the U.S. Navy has prepared for, according to The New York Times, is a “swarm” attack by fast boats — preparations that included installing high-caliber cannons and other weapons on American ships. However, such a coordinated attack involving large numbers of small boats has not yet occurred. Still, concern over the threat remains evident, and the U.S. Navy is currently avoiding passage through the Strait of Hormuz. While it sent two destroyers through the strait about a week ago to demonstrate that transit was still possible, the naval blockade on Iran is being enforced east of Hormuz — from the Gulf of Oman and even farther, in the Arabian Sea — where it is much harder for Iran to target U.S. vessels.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards naval exercise with Speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz in 2015
(Photo: From Wikipedia)
The New York Times described years of encounters between U.S. ships and Iranian fast boats as a “cat-and-mouse game.” Roughead recalled how, during the 1990s and 2000s, the boats would approach U.S. warships at high speed and veer away only when they were about 800 meters away. Even before the war, such encounters sometimes escalated into direct confrontations. One notable incident occurred in 2016, when the IRGC seized two U.S. boats. Ten American sailors were filmed on their knees in captivity before being released.
The commander behind that operation, Gen. Mohammad Nazeri, founded the IRGC Navy’s commando forces. He died later that year — reportedly due to “chemical effects” from exposure during the Iran-Iraq War — and over time he attained near-cult status in the Islamic Republic, with military exercises named after him.
He also inspired a reality television show that aired in Iran for five seasons. Each season featured 30 contestants competing for the chance to join the naval commandos, performing survival tasks or daring missions such as cliff dives into Gulf waters, while viewers voted to select their favorite “hero.”
