Iran to U.S.: bring it on

High-ranking Iranian military officials are rattling sabers again, this time by issuing a warning that Iranian submarines “can ambush and destroy enemy vessels especially U.S. aircraft carriers” should they return to the Persian Gulf – even as the first has returned, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. Rear Adm. Farhad Amiri, of the Iranian army’s self-sufficiency jihad, claimed that the United States is especially focused on Iran’s “astonishing subsurface capabilities.” Iran is known to have a number of diesel-run submarines, some purchased from Russia years ago, but the nation also has developed an indigenous submarine production.

The submarines not only can fire missiles off of their decks when surfaced but they are assessed by various reliable sources to have the Russian export version of the Shkval, a high-speed supercavitating rocket-propelled torpedo designed to be a rapid-reaction defense against other submarines and surface vessels.

It also can be used as a counter-measure to an incoming torpedo. Because the Shkval can travel at speeds of 250 miles per hour, the U.S. Navy has no known defense against it.

The Russians also have developed a “super” Shkval, which can be guided. It cannot be ruled out that the Russians may have provided the super Shkval to the Iranians.

Amiri not only pointed to the Iranian navy’s arms and equipment but also to “tactical issues,” apparently referring to the capability that the Iranian submarines can sit quietly on the Persian Gulf’s seafloor.

“It would be the worst threat to the enemy,” Amiri said. “That is one of the U.S. concerns since Iranian submarines are noiseless and can easily evade detection as they are equipped with the sonar-evading technology and can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously.

When the submarine sits on the seabed it can easily target and hit an aircraft carrier traversing in the nearby regions.” According to reliable sources, sonar on U.S. warships to detect the submarines may not pick up the Iranian submarines, especially the smaller submarines in Iran’s inventory, since U.S. equipment is so powerful and designed to work in deep waters.

Meanwhile, U.S. report said the USS Abraham Lincoln was dispatched back into the Persian Gulf today.