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by bigyabai 105 days ago
It might have been a low-observable watercraft like the Sea Baby: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Baby

A true UUV attack is probably outside Iran's wheelhouse, but cutting-down an attack speedboat to the waterline seems very realistic.
1 comments
cyberax 105 days ago
Why would it be outside of Iran capabilities? They are the ones who provided Russia with Shahed drones.
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dingaling 105 days ago
> They are the ones who provided Russia with Shahed drones.

Shaheeds are aerodynamic clones of the Israeli Harpy SEAD drone, which in turn were based on the German Dornier DAR of the 1980s.

Compared to the loitering anti-radar DAR, the Shaheed is electronically extremely simple and not much more advanced than the WW2 V-1.

The fact that Russia started producing Shaheeds reflects more on the poor state of Russian industry than any sophistication of Iranian technology.

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fc417fc802 105 days ago
It's so odd that in modern America weapons being cheap and practical is often seen as a negative. Have to make sure to fork over a couple million per shot to a defence contractor.
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DrProtic 105 days ago
Guy is full of it though. Iranian drones are very effective while American Switchblade drones shit the bed completely in Ukraine.

We have US cloning Iranian drones now https://www.euronews.com/2026/03/10/flm-136-americas-cheap-i...

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infamia 105 days ago
You're comparing apples, bananas, and pineapples while pretending they're all one thing. Switchblades are extremely effective (albeit expensive) anti-personnel (300 model) and anti-armor (600 model) drones. Shaheds are much larger, cheap, low on capabilities, but attritable used to attack fixed positions (e.g., buildings). These are all very different.
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Teever 105 days ago
That's the point -- maybe the US should have bought apples instead of buying bananas.
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tim333 105 days ago
Ukraine have underwater drones https://militarnyi.com/en/news/ukrainian-underwater-drone-to...

Could be a copy of those? They don't look that complicated - tube with explosives, battery, electric motors, some sort of computer/radio control. Not so different to a Shahed in complexity.

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bigyabai 105 days ago
It's not impossible. Iran has connections with China, who is great at designing and manufacturing UUVs.

That said, a UUV fleet would have downsides for Iran. It's expensive, dependent on imports and an overmatch for swarm-style attacks. Attack boats are a closer fit for the "cheap/attritable" tactics we see used with Shaheds.

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cyberax 105 days ago
I think you're overestimating the complexity of small unmanned subs. Drug traffickers are building _manned_ subs now in South American jungles.

You just need a body (plastic tube), batteries, motors, and a computer. Maybe with a "range extender" gas engine. Everything can be COTS, and Iran certainly can manufacture occasional custom components.

After all, it can manufacture centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

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bigyabai 105 days ago
Maybe! Most of those unmanned narcosubs are cut-down speedboats hulls, to my knowledge. The truly watertight/submerged ones are few and far between; it's a lot of investment for marginal decrease in observability.

My money is still on low-observable attack craft, or a high-low mix that deprioritizes submersibles. Iran has an impressive panopoly but also has casus belli to lie out their nose. If Iran does have fully submersable UUVs, I'd expect them to be saved for a direct confrontation with the US Navy, not tankers.

I could definitely be wrong though, I don't have any insider info to work with here.

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cyberax 105 days ago
> Most of those unmanned narcosubs are cut-down speedboats hulls, to my knowledge.

Some are now fully submersible: https://insightcrime.org/news/under-radar-what-hundreds-ofna...

I think it is indeed more likely that they used a low-profile boat, but I won't discount a full submersible. Or maybe a combination: a low-profile boat that uses a regular outboard gas engine to get close to the target, and then dives and attacks like a torpedo.

> If Iran does have fully submersable UUVs, I'd expect them to be saved for a direct confrontation with the US Navy, not tankers.

I don't think they can do serious damage to large US Navy vessels.

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