Why Iran's 'Mosquito Fleet' Remains a Potent Threat in the Strait of Hormuz [View all]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/world/middleeast/iran-irgc-navy-strait-of-hormuz.html

https://archive.ph/J2nSJ

Why Iran’s ‘Mosquito Fleet’ Remains a Potent Threat in the Strait of Hormuz
Separate from the regular Iranian Navy, with boats that often go more than 115 miles per hour, it’s what a retired U.S. official calls a “disruptive force.”
By Neil MacFarquhar
April 18, 2026 Updated 5:35 a.m. ET

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It is a flotilla of small, fast, agile boats designed to harass shipping, and it forms the heart of the naval forces deployed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a force separate from Iran’s regular navy.

These boats, and especially the missiles and drones that the Guards navy can launch from them, or from camouflaged sites onshore, have been the main threat stymying shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

“The I.R.G.C. navy works more like a guerrilla force at sea,” said Saeid Golkar, an expert on the Guards and a political science professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

“It is focused on asymmetrical warfare, especially in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” he added. “So instead of relying on big warships and classic naval battles, it depends on hit-and-run attacks.”

The boats are often too small to appear on satellite images, and they are moored along piers within deep caves excavated along the rocky coastline, ready to be deployed in minutes, analysts said. Their arsenal poses a major threat to commercial ships in the gulf and the strait.

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