USVs, The IRGC Navy's Trump Card in the Persian Gulf

Field reports from the past year show that Iran has increased its USV capabilities during this period and intends to upgrade its submarines with various applications.

News ID: 87044

Date: 16 December 2025 - 09:39

TEHRAN (Defapress) - Battles at sea become meaningful with the availability of war equipment such as ships, destroyers, fast attack boats, submarines, etc.

USV (Unmanned Surface Vessel) is one of the military equipment that is extremely effective in naval battles; for example, the USVs of the Yemeni army and popular forces dealt heavy blows to the US Navy in the war with the US.

In the US-Yemen war, the suicide boats of the Yemeni army and popular forces were able to stand strong against America and forced the United States to retreat. Yemeni missiles also targeted commercial fleets affiliated with the Zionist regime, and these daily actions by the Yemenis led to the complete closure of the port of Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat) in the south of the occupied territories.

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For example, in December 2024, the Yemeni army used the "Tufan al-Modammer" missile during a special naval operation to target the "TRANSWORLD Navigator" ship twice, and this suicide boat hit the Zionist regime's commercial ship. Tufan al-Modammer is a USV with a warhead weighing 1,000 to 1,500 kilograms and a speed of 45 kilometers per hour. This missile, manufactured by Yemeni military industries, is also equipped with advanced technology and is capable of maneuvering in any sea conditions.

Foreign media claim that the naval capabilities of the Yemeni army and the Ansar Allah movement are derived from the naval capabilities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. The Yemenis have developed many of their military capabilities during the war with the Royal Saudi Army and its allies.

For example, one of the USVs used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, and foreign media outlets are trying to attribute its military use and assembly to Yemen, is the "Ya Mahdi" USV. The powerful Ya Mahdi suicide boat is based on a two-person patrol boat and is also capable of moving quickly in rough seas. The Ya Mahdi is 11.9 meters long, 3.1 meters wide, and 1.5 meters high. This remote-controlled suicide speedboat has two 660-horsepower engines that allow it to reach a cruising speed of about 60 knots (one knot is estimated to be about two kilometers per hour).

The Ya Mahdi naval vessel, in a real-life simulated exercise in the Great Prophet 9 (PBUH), showed that enemies would be extremely vulnerable if they entered by sea. In this exercise by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, when a huge replica of the aircraft carrier “USS John Nimitz” was targeted in the Persian Gulf, the Ya Mahdi entered the field and caused a huge explosion when it collided with the replica of this aircraft carrier. For this reason, the Americans know that confronting the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf is not an easy task; because Iran can strike back at the US Navy fleet, and this is not a bluff; rather, it is a reality that has been clearly shown to the enemies in the naval conflicts of the last few years (an example of these conflicts was seen in Yemen, where the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and its fleet suffered hundreds of millions of dollars in damage in a conflict with the Yemeni Navy and retreated from the Gulf of Aden).

Field reports over the past year show that Iran has increased its missile capabilities during this period and intends to upgrade its missile submarines. Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, stated in this regard: "We must strive to achieve further progress, and today we are proud to have begun building USVs with guided missiles."

A noteworthy point regarding the importance of upgrading naval capabilities and building fast unmanned vessels is that these capabilities protect Iran’s maritime interests. Enemies are always jeopardizing the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran at sea, and confronting these threats requires us to be equipped with all kinds of conventional equipment and weapons to defend our interests and resources.

Major General Hossein Salami had stated in this regard that we have gone through difficult times; on the one hand, there were sanctions and the problems of Covid-19, and on the other hand, there was Trump, who was not a little concerned about Covid-19. At that time, they hit 14 of our ships in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea so that our oil would not be exported. At first, we did not realize who was targeting our ships, but after a while, we realized that it was the Zionist regime. The Zionist regime carried out this action very mysteriously and ambiguously, so we hit 12 of their ships; after hitting the fifth ship, the Zionists raised their hands and said that we would stop the ship battle.

In a situation where the war is constantly flaring in the Gulf of Aden and the Black Sea and the vessels of powerful countries are being hit, and in a situation where the Persian Gulf is usually tense due to the illegitimate presence of the United States and its extra-regional allies, the presence of a superior factor in a heterogeneous war such as USVs or manned fast vessels can change the power equations, and Iran has the necessary tools in this regard.