The secret Iranian armada hell-bent on sinking a US aircraft carrier in Strait of Hormuz: Speedboats armed with torpedoes, explosive drones and a fleet of mini-subs: IAN GALLAGHER

Somewhere in the temperate waters of the Strait of Hormuz, small but deadly Iranian submarines lurk patiently – with Donald Trump’s warships in their crosshairs.

Slipping through sonar blind spots, the Ghadir-class mini subs silently shadow their prey, despatch their underwater anti-ship cruise missiles or homing torpedoes, then simply vanish.

Not for nothing are they known as the ‘Ghosts in the Gulf’. One is said to have photographed an aircraft carrier up close during a surveillance mission before slinking away undetected.

Tehran has previously claimed that ‘on several occasions’ the submarines ‘caught US Navy vessels off guard by surfacing unexpectedly near them’.

Adapted from a North Korean model, Ghadir inspires pride in Iranians – though submarines are far from the only deadly hardware in their naval arsenal.

From torpedo-firing speedboats and kamikaze drones to mines of every description and unmanned explosive-laden craft disguised as wooden fishing boats… enough fiendish weaponry for a 007 film awaits the US Navy in the world’s busiest oil shipping channel.

Certainly, enough to give the 2,000 marines on board USS Tripoli pause for thought. Next week, the 50,000-ton amphibious assault ship, en route from Japan, will enter the war zone and prepare for a confrontation that may yet decide the conflict’s outcome.

Whether there is a part to play for Britain in the Battle of Hormuz remains to be seen.

Iranian Revolutionary Guards man their speedboats in the Persian Gulf off the port of Bandar Abbas (file photo)

Ghadir-class mini subs can silently shadow their prey, despatch their underwater anti-ship cruise missiles or homing torpedoes, then simply vanish

A boat firing a missile during a military exercise by members of the IRGC and navy in the Gulf

Last week, Sir Keir Starmer offered UK bases as launchpads for US strikes to restore freedom of navigation to the strait, which Iran effectively closed, causing a surge in oil and gas prices.

Military sources claimed on Saturday night that nuclear-powered submarine HMS Anson was in the region.

But so far the Royal Navy is said to be unwilling to send warships because the threat posed by Iran means the situation is ‘too fluid’. Our last ship in the region, the minehunter HMS Middleton, retired earlier this year.

How it will all unfold is unclear. The Iranians are said to be ‘licking their lips’ at the prospect of an encounter in the strait. For Tehran has laid a trap, which President Trump risks sailing right into.

Just 24 miles wide at its narrowest point, Hormuz joins the Gulf with the rest of the world.

Bounded by Iran to the north and Oman to the south, it is the only route by which ships – including oil and gas tankers – can travel from the ports of Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the east coast of Saudi Arabia and most of the United Arab Emirates to the world’s energy markets.

To the Islamic regime, Hormuz represents its best opportunity for inflicting symbolic damage on the US. And Iran has much to avenge.

For one thing, it hasn’t forgotten loss of the warship Iris Dena, torpedoed by a US submarine off the southern coast of Sri Lanka in the early days of the war.

Sinking a US ship in retaliation might seem unthinkable, but as one defence expert said, even if the Iranians hit just one and it required rescue, the result would be ‘catastrophic for the image of Donald Trump in the American political theatre’.

Iran’s blockade of Hormuz includes a threat to ‘set on fire’ any vessels that dare cross it. Usually, about a fifth of global oil and gas passes through the narrow corridor connecting the Gulf with the Arabian Sea.

But Iran’s General Sardar Jabbari says Tehran will now ‘not let a single drop of oil leave the region’.

In response to Iran’s threats, Mr Trump promised to grant tankers and other commercial ships a navy escort. As he has learned since making his pledge, that is easier said than done.

For though Iran’s regular navy suffered heavy losses in the first wave of US attacks, the country’s second navy run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which is responsible for the strait, is thought to be largely intact.

The rugged mountainous coastline to the east of the strait gives the Iranians a key advantage. They can dig into the hills and launch over-the-horizon strikes that are difficult to spot. And drones can be despatched undetected from anywhere.

Some of Iran’s deadly vessels are thought to be hiding in an underground cove on a tiny island in the strait.

The IRGC’s navy specialises in asymmetric warfare: avoiding a more dominant opponent’s strengths and instead focusing on weaknesses using unconventional strategies and tactics.

A 2020 report by Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, outlined how this might play out in the strait.

It said: ‘Iran could theoretically launch a coordinated attack involving explosives-laden remote-controlled boats and remotely operated underwater vehicles, swarming speedboats, semi-submersible torpedo boats, kamikaze [drones], midget attack submarines, and shore-based antiship missile and artillery fire.’

Elsewhere the report says Iran’s network of islands, inlets and coves along the strait provide ‘excellent hiding places’ and allow for ‘staging precision mining operations, sneak missile and swarming attacks’.

Iran has also bored tunnels into rocky islands ‘from where boats can launch directly into shipping lanes’.

Experts have also suggested Iran could have used a space launch vehicle to enable its ballistic missiles to reach Diego Garcia. Pictured: A satellite carrier being launched from the Imam Khomeini spaceport in Semnan, December 2024

It adds: ‘Speedboats can rush out of covered locks and concrete pens, or can be launched from flatbed trucks under cover of darkness during high tide without any special accommodations.

‘These capabilities can increase surprise and reduce transit time to the points of contact.’

Other firepower at the IRGC’s disposal includes armed replicas of the British-built Bladerunner 51, hailed as among the fastest speedboats in the world.

A senior IRGC commander said when it was launched: ‘The Bladerunner is a British ship that holds the world speed record [80mph].

‘We got a copy [on which] we made some changes so it can launch missiles and torpedoes.’

The Washington Institute report says such ‘fast-attack craft’ are essential in controlling the strait. ‘The IRGC navy uses these boats for maritime patrol and ultimately swarming and sneaking missile attacks.’

It adds: ‘A key feature of the IRGC’s rocket-firing swarm boats is their survivability, achieved by designing the boats to have a lower profile paired with high speed and manoeuvrability.

‘For a similar reason, Iran has been working on unmanned surface vessels since the late 1980s, specifically through the development and fielding of remote-controlled suicide drone boats packed with explosives.

Iran’s use of intermediate ballistic missiles on a British military base in the Chagos Islands has escalated fears that major European capitals are now within reach of another attack. Pictured: Long-range Shahab-3 missile being launched

The Shahab has a range of at least 2,000 kilometres or 1,200 miles. But now Iran appears to be able to strike more distant targets

‘Iran has positioned no fewer than 1,500 of them, each armed with 500kg of explosives, along key Persian Gulf coastal areas.

‘Originally designed to destroy warships, these drone boats have progressively been made more sophisticated with the provision of various sensors and data links.’

The regime is estimated to have 17 submarines garrisoned at Bandar Abbas, which sits on the northern bend. US forces appear to have disabled only one of them since the attacks began last week.

That submarine – a 500-ton Fateh-class vessel with at least four 533mm torpedo tubes – was Iran’s ‘most operational’ sub-surface boat, according to US military officials.

What’s left could still inflict significant damage. Sending ships to escort commercial vessels – as many as 80 tankers per day – will pitch US troops perilously close to Iran’s crude but lethal arsenal.

Ryan Ramsey, a former captain of the Royal Navy submarine HMS Turbulent, said: ‘Having operated submarines in the Gulf region, the Iranian submarine force should be taken seriously.’

As well as Ghadir-class, he said Iran also operated Russian-made Kilo-class submarines, which are larger, longer-range boats and have greater firepower.

‘In the confined waters of the region, even a small number of submarines can create real uncertainty for surface commanders,’ Mr Ramsey added.

‘That said, against capable anti-submarine forces the balance shifts. US submarines and maritime patrol assets are extremely proficient at finding and tracking these boats.’

According to the report, the IRGC considers sea mines essential to what it calls its ‘smart control’ of the Strait of Hormuz.

To that end, it is said to have acquired some of the world’s deadliest, including ‘influence’ mines which rest on the seabed. Triggered not by physical contact, they instead use sensors to detect when a vessel is nearby.

Magnetic limpet mines are also favoured. The report says they are ‘deployed by speedboats or divers, as demonstrated… in 2019 when just south of the Strait of Hormuz, two transiting tankers were attacked by speeding boats attaching limpet mines to their target hulls’.

Even if the US feels it could counter all Iranian threats, the operation would be enormously complex, expensive and would last as long as Iran chooses to keep threatening ships – something beyond Donald Trump’s control.

Former Air Marshal Martin Sampson says the US appeared unprepared for the large combined land, sea and air operation needed to secure the strait.

He said the waterway would become ‘a target-rich environment’ for Iranian forces, who could throw everything they’ve got at warships carrying hundreds of sailors.

The Marine Expeditionary Unit on board the USS Tripoli could take part in an invasion of Iran’s Kharg Island, located 15 miles off its mainland. It is the country’s main oil export terminal and critical to its fragile economy.

The Tripoli could be joined by another amphibious assault ship the USS Boxer, which left San Diego earlier last week, bringing the number of marines units in the region to three.

Blockading or occupying the five-mile strip of land might give Washington leverage in talks to reopen the Strait and allow Mr Trump to end the war on his terms.

However, such an operation – which would leave US troops exposed to Iranian missiles and drones – would only be launched once Iran’s coastal military capabilities have been further degraded.

‘We need about a month to weaken the Iranians more with strikes, take the island and then get them by the balls and use it for negotiations,’ one source said.

Sascha Bruchmann, a military analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said US marines could deploy from the Tripoli using Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which can transport squads of 20 troops to positions up to 400 miles away. They could land using smaller amphibious assault boats.

Another target is Qeshm Island in the strait. ‘It’s a bit like an unsinkable aircraft carrier,’ Mr Bruchmann told The Times.

‘There’s natural salt caverns and mines, which are used as underground storage facilities for the [drones] that now hold shipping hostage. So marines as fighters and as amphibious raiders, would be the ideal option to… try to neutralise these facilities.’

Other options include seizing the islands of Hormuz or Larak, where US forces could install counter-drone radar systems.

In short, the President faces an inescapable dilemma. Inaction risks global trade chaos, but taking action could entangle the US in a conflict with no obvious end in sight.