Quote:
Originally Posted by Platapus
Should do well in the littoral zone.
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My thoughts exactly. I would even say the small size is ideal for their needs. The Gulf is relatively shallow, and limited in size, so is the Hormuz Strait. And the small size also makes the boat less detectable to active sonar. Have you realised the small diameter, seen from front?
In a recent discussion, somebody wanted to convince me that small speedy boats cannot penetrate the defence belt of a US flotilla even when these are "flooding" the target area (and some days later I launched a thread that included the Millennium Challenge 2002 exercise disaster, where 15 Us ships and carriers were sunk by doing exactly this). By comments I must conclude, that these midget subs are getting underestimated as well by some guys. If it is not big, I mean: really big XXL style, than it cannot be good, or what?!
As the Kaleu in "Das Boot" commented on the young bigmouths in the bar getting drunk and yelling martial slogans:
"Die werden auch noch ruhiger." 
The Ghadirs probably are aiming more against tankers and merchants, and the local rivalling small navies of the Gulf states, than against American war vessels. What Iran wants to do is closing the Strait and denying much of the Gulf to international traffic. And I think they can easily do that without the US navy being able to do much about it: shutting down the Strait completely, and making everything that swims on their side of the Gulf a target.