Inside Iran’s navy as Trump boasts of sinking Tehran’s fleet

Since launching Operation Epic Fury on Saturday, the United States has claimed to have completely destroyed Iran’s naval fleet.

If true, it would represent a significant victory for the US and Israel in its joint war against the Islamic Republic, which has a powerful naval force.

At a press conference on Wednesday, defence secretary Pete Hegseth said that the “Iranian Navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf”, with US strikes damaging at least 17 naval vessels.

His comments came shortly after a US submarine torpedoed the Iranian frigate warship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, in what Hegseth claimed was the first time an American ship had sunk an enemy vessel since World War II. At least 80 people on board the ship were killed.

Iran has had some form of an organised naval force since around 500BC, when its ships battled enemies in the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and Mediterranean. Over the centuries it has evolved and grown into a significant force.

But in a matter of days, attacks by the US and Israel are thought to have done significant damage to Iran’s fleet. Below The Independent looks at the power of the Iranian Navy and its importance in the war.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy consists of 18,000 troops and 2,600 separate marines, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

According to the IISS’s 2026 annual assessment of global military capabilities and defence economics, the Iranian naval fleet includes:

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Naval Forces is a separate force with 20,000 troops including 5,000 marines.

It has a fleet of:

The IRGC naval fleet is equipped with helicopters, UAVs and air-launched missiles, as well as laser-guided and electro-optical guided bombs.

The oldest vessel in the fleet is the 1936 IRIS Hamzeh, a 539 tonne corvette that was originally built as a royal yacht for Reza Shah before it was converted to a warship. Iran added multiple new ships to its fleet last year, including the IRIS Kurdistan auxiliary ship, a 45,500 tonne Makran class forward base ship.

The fleet’s largest tonnage ship, the IRIS Makran commissioned in 2021, was 121,000 metric tonnes at full load. A former crude oil tanker converted into a warship, the vessel could carry six helicopters.

However, the Makran was destroyed in an attack by US forces on vessels moored at the Bandar Abbas naval base.

Hegseth said that the US was winning its military operation against Iran “decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.”

Admiral Brad Cooper issued an update on behalf of US Centcom on Tuesday where he declared: “We are also sinking the Iranian navy. The entire navy.”

He continued: “Thus far we’ve destroyed 17 Iranian ships, including the most operational Iranian submarine that now has a hole in its side.

“For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping,” he added. “Today there’s not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, or Gulf of Oman, and we will not stop.”

Satellite imagery from US commercial imaging firm Planet Labs PBC shows that Iran’s biggest warship – a former oil tanker converted into a floating base – was set alight at a military port.

Analysts identified the IRIS Makran in the harbour at Bandar Abbas, an Iranian port city adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz and the Makran’s home port.

Hegseth also claimed that the US military had sunk Iran’s prize ship, the Soleimani, on Tuesday.

Satellite images of the southern Konarak naval base and the Bandar Abbas facility, on the Strait of Hormuz, show smoke billowing from multiple ships.

Maritime security firm Vanguard said that the IRIS Bayandor, IRIS Naghdi, and the IRIS Jamaran were among the ships destroyed in the strikes, according to the BBC. Vanguard also claimed that the IRIS Shahid Bagheri, a state-of-the-art drone carrier ship launched by Iran last year, had been sunk. The Independent could not verify these reports.

Source: independent.co.uk