Iran Military Forum

Interesting tactical weapon that seems to fulfill a larger role in Iran's "doctrine of asymmetric naval warfare" then in other regional and global armed forces.

My criticism of the designs displayed on parades and whatnot is the lack of a carrying capacity. They lack any external rungs that would be used to tow divers and they only have an internal capacity of a 1-2 swimmers, this necessitates a veritable fleet of them for even the smallest assault force.

They also seem to lack even the most rudimentary navigation tools.

My criticism of the designs displayed on parades and whatnot is the lack of a carrying capacity. They lack any external rungs that would be used to tow divers and they only have an internal capacity of a 1-2 swimmers, this necessitates a veritable fleet of them for even the smallest assault force.

I disagree, i think two is the optimal amount, if this thing gets detected then only two soldiers are captured, if you need more than two soldiers then send two of these. Plus these things are meant to transport miners not assault teams. The UK used these things well in WW2, they sent the SBS to mine German ships.

I disagree, i think two is the optimal amount, if this thing gets detected then only two soldiers are captured, if you need more than two soldiers then send two of these. Plus these things are meant to transport miners not assault teams. The UK used these things well in WW2, they sent the SBS to mine German ships.

Shirazi:
I've been doing some more research on SDV's in general and i'm inclined to agree with you. I had previously envisioned it as transportation for a combat swimmer team something like the SEAL delivery vehicle. But looking at other countries smaller SDV's, the more common design seems to resemble the Al-Sabehat in terms of design and doctrine designed.

Catsoo:
I'd be interested to see your pictures one of these days if you ever want to post them.

One interesting question i think is the nature of their deployment.

Assuming Catsoo is correct in this case, and their range is 50+ km (which is roughly in line with other SDV's of the same size) and they use GPS to navigate (which is reasonable to assume), they would still largely be restricted to operating from a few limited locations, notably the Islands in the Persian Gulf.

However, given Iran's close cooperation with North Korea on all types of weapons development, a logical development would be to deploy them from mother-ships such as a disguised dhow or trawler, such as how Iran mined the gulf during the Iran-Iraq war. 

Looking at the picture of the Taedong, it looks like it could carry twin 324 mm torpedoes, but i cant say for sure, those could be storage cylinders.

There is not much I would like to disclose except that this "wet submarine" as oppose to its look, is very capable for its class. It can easily be launched by a larger ship near its target, can manage its mission completely undetected having full communication capability with mother ship.

Don't let its less than attractive  looks fool you.

Catsoo

If you guys remember we saw this submarine during the Army Day 2011 - I thought it was an SDV at the time but couldn't be sure that it wasn't a mockup. Turns out it was actually a prototype (presumably) from the Iran-Iraq war.