President Donald Trump recently declared that he had “completely destroyed” the Iranian navy, reducing the fleet to “small boats equipped with machine guns.”
However, these “small boats” – which some Western analysts refer to as the “mosquito fleet” – have some bite.
For months, they have been aiding the Tehran regime in causing chaos in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important maritime routes, in what experts describe as an attempt to disrupt the global economy and pressure Washington to end its war with Tehran.
But what is this mosquito fleet and how has it become so effective?
The fleet of small fast attack boats was created by the Iranian regime in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. Despite Iran being at war with Iraq, the conflict spilled over into the Persian Gulf with the “tanker war” in the 1980s, which saw the US getting involved in protecting oil transport.
The clashes with the US navy led to significant losses for the conventional Iranian naval fleet. As a response, Iran’s small boat fleet was developed as part of a doctrine of war designed to combat superior naval powers.
Powered by the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), this fleet was not created for traditional naval combat but to “disrupt and interrupt navigation,” according to Saeid Golkar, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and an advisor to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a non-profit organization opposing the Iranian regime.
“The IRGC knows it cannot defeat the United States in conventional naval warfare,” he added.
The general aim is to pressure Washington to abandon its war against Tehran and deter any new attacks. The fleet’s tactics include firing near commercial ships, laying mines at sea, and sending swarms of high-speed boats from different directions.
These fast attack boats are generally equipped with machine guns, rockets, or anti-ship missiles. While many were designed and built by the Iranian state, others have been repurposed from civilian use, including former fishing boats.
These boats are inexpensive and easy to replace, allowing Iran to threaten commercial and military ships at a relatively low cost, thereby increasing the risk for its adversary’s valuable assets and the global maritime economy.
Experts believe the goal is to put pressure on Washington to give up its war against Tehran and to deter any new attacks. Detection of these boats is difficult, as many are hidden in caves, coves, and tunnels along Iran’s southern coast. Estimates put the number of boats between 500 and over a thousand.
The Iranian regime regularly holds naval exercises involving the mosquito fleet.
