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Iran Meluncurkan Kamikaze Drone & Indigenous Ocean-Going Tanker
Iran unveils kamikaze drones
With a population nearing 75 million, Iran is one of the most populous countries in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic has long sought to leverage its comparatively large population in the regime’s defense. During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), for example, Iranian authorities would send unarmed and barefoot 14- and 15-year-old members of the paramilitary Basij across minefields to clear them, with only the promise of paradise to motivate them.
As the 1988 Operation Praying Mantis demonstrated, the Iranian military has difficulty confronting U.S. forces head on and its navy has since developed swarming techniques. This is meant to exploit American vulnerabilities and cause enough casualties to force American officials to shy away from a prolonged fight. This includes suicide attacks. The problem with suicide attacks, of course, is finding enough cadres willing to commit suicide. Not only does age tempers revolutionary ideology but demography also affects the availability of volunteers. Because the birthrate in Iran is only half of what it was during the Iran-Iraq War, the Iranian government recognizes that it cannot assume an endless supply of young men willing to take their own lives in pursuit of religious or revolutionary ideals.
It is against this backdrop that the excerpted news account should interest Western security officials. The Iranian government has made no secret of its desire to develop a greater drone capability. While Iranian claims to have reverse-engineered a captured American drone appear exaggerated, there is little doubt that the Iranian military has developed drones and put them into operation. The Islamic Republic already uses drones for surveillance, and has previously claimed to have armed them with small missiles. Suicide drones, however, do not require the same technical expertise as the well-armed predators that Iran has previously claimed to have developed. Packed with explosives, Iranian suicide drones could wreak havoc with naval vessels and international shipping in the Persian Gulf. Iranian attempts to make good on threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, for example, might involve kamikaze drones rather than mines. Even absent explosives, an Iranian willingness to collide drones with helicopters and jetfighters could hamper routine naval and army aviation along the borders of Iran. If the Iranian embrace of suicide drones is serious and if the Iranians master the technology, Iranian strategists might have just opened a new chapter in their asymmetric military strategy.
http://www.aei.org/article/foreign-a...mikaze-drones/
Iran launches indigenous ocean-going tanker
Malta-flagged Iranian crude oil supertanker "Delvar" is seen anchored off Singapore March 1, 2012.
Iranian officials regularly announce alleged breakthroughs in their own domestic armament industry. In recent months, for example, they have announced new drones, aircraft, antiaircraft missiles, and submarines, and have even promised to build an aircraft carrier. Except for the aircraft carrier and perhaps the fighter jet, there is usually some kernel of truth to the Iranian claims, although they are seldom as advanced as Iranian officials might claim.
While such claims grab headlines, the announcement of a more modest achievement—launching a new line of indigenous tanker—should register on the radar screens of Western policymakers and security officials for a number of reasons. Press reports describe the 178-meter-long, 32-meter-wide tanker as weighing 35,000 tons, with a five-story, 400-ton superstructure. Its engines reportedly have a propulsion power of 11,200 KW, making it bigger than the Aframax-class tankers which Iranian shipbuilders have constructed for Venezuela.
Both the United States and the European Union have already slapped unilateral sanctions upon the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) in order to leverage pressure upon Iran’s oil exports into Iranian concessions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Because sanctioning the NITC might hamper the company from purchasing new tankers, the Iranian government will likely claim as a victory the ability to build their own.
The European Union’s ban on reflagging Iranian tankers to third countries—a strategy Iran has used to skirt sanctions —may mean the Iranian government has switched tactics and now seeks to control all aspects of the oil industry, from drilling to delivery.
A larger issue for American and European policymakers may be the security challenge that Iranian-built, Iranian-operated tankers may pose to international shipping and port security. Iranian shipping remains largely under the aegis of Khatam al-Anbia, the economic and commercial wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranian authorities have made clear that they recognize that they cannot defeat the United States head-on, and will therefore consider asymmetric naval strategies.
http://www.aei.org/article/foreign-a...-going-tanker/
With a population nearing 75 million, Iran is one of the most populous countries in the Middle East. The Islamic Republic has long sought to leverage its comparatively large population in the regime’s defense. During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), for example, Iranian authorities would send unarmed and barefoot 14- and 15-year-old members of the paramilitary Basij across minefields to clear them, with only the promise of paradise to motivate them.
As the 1988 Operation Praying Mantis demonstrated, the Iranian military has difficulty confronting U.S. forces head on and its navy has since developed swarming techniques. This is meant to exploit American vulnerabilities and cause enough casualties to force American officials to shy away from a prolonged fight. This includes suicide attacks. The problem with suicide attacks, of course, is finding enough cadres willing to commit suicide. Not only does age tempers revolutionary ideology but demography also affects the availability of volunteers. Because the birthrate in Iran is only half of what it was during the Iran-Iraq War, the Iranian government recognizes that it cannot assume an endless supply of young men willing to take their own lives in pursuit of religious or revolutionary ideals.
It is against this backdrop that the excerpted news account should interest Western security officials. The Iranian government has made no secret of its desire to develop a greater drone capability. While Iranian claims to have reverse-engineered a captured American drone appear exaggerated, there is little doubt that the Iranian military has developed drones and put them into operation. The Islamic Republic already uses drones for surveillance, and has previously claimed to have armed them with small missiles. Suicide drones, however, do not require the same technical expertise as the well-armed predators that Iran has previously claimed to have developed. Packed with explosives, Iranian suicide drones could wreak havoc with naval vessels and international shipping in the Persian Gulf. Iranian attempts to make good on threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, for example, might involve kamikaze drones rather than mines. Even absent explosives, an Iranian willingness to collide drones with helicopters and jetfighters could hamper routine naval and army aviation along the borders of Iran. If the Iranian embrace of suicide drones is serious and if the Iranians master the technology, Iranian strategists might have just opened a new chapter in their asymmetric military strategy.
http://www.aei.org/article/foreign-a...mikaze-drones/
Iran launches indigenous ocean-going tanker
Malta-flagged Iranian crude oil supertanker "Delvar" is seen anchored off Singapore March 1, 2012.
Iranian officials regularly announce alleged breakthroughs in their own domestic armament industry. In recent months, for example, they have announced new drones, aircraft, antiaircraft missiles, and submarines, and have even promised to build an aircraft carrier. Except for the aircraft carrier and perhaps the fighter jet, there is usually some kernel of truth to the Iranian claims, although they are seldom as advanced as Iranian officials might claim.
While such claims grab headlines, the announcement of a more modest achievement—launching a new line of indigenous tanker—should register on the radar screens of Western policymakers and security officials for a number of reasons. Press reports describe the 178-meter-long, 32-meter-wide tanker as weighing 35,000 tons, with a five-story, 400-ton superstructure. Its engines reportedly have a propulsion power of 11,200 KW, making it bigger than the Aframax-class tankers which Iranian shipbuilders have constructed for Venezuela.
Both the United States and the European Union have already slapped unilateral sanctions upon the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) in order to leverage pressure upon Iran’s oil exports into Iranian concessions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Because sanctioning the NITC might hamper the company from purchasing new tankers, the Iranian government will likely claim as a victory the ability to build their own.
The European Union’s ban on reflagging Iranian tankers to third countries—a strategy Iran has used to skirt sanctions —may mean the Iranian government has switched tactics and now seeks to control all aspects of the oil industry, from drilling to delivery.
A larger issue for American and European policymakers may be the security challenge that Iranian-built, Iranian-operated tankers may pose to international shipping and port security. Iranian shipping remains largely under the aegis of Khatam al-Anbia, the economic and commercial wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranian authorities have made clear that they recognize that they cannot defeat the United States head-on, and will therefore consider asymmetric naval strategies.
http://www.aei.org/article/foreign-a...-going-tanker/
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