Breaking News : Iran’s Ghost Submarines Are Still Hunting in the Strait of Hormuz And the U.S. Cannot Find Them
Despite sustained U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian naval assets, Iran’s Ghadir-class midget submarines remain operational in the Strait of Hormuz lurking in waters so shallow and so loud that American anti-submarine systems struggle to detect them.
Iran operates a fleet of up to 20 to 23 Ghadir-class midget submarines. Each vessel is roughly one-tenth the size of a conventional attack submarine, at 120 tons and 29 meters in length. They are capable of firing torpedoes at passing tankers and, under cover of darkness, laying dozens of naval mines without detection.
The Strait of Hormuz is described by U.S. defense officials as an Iranian “kill box.” The combination of shallow depth, intense commercial shipping noise, and oil drilling activity creates near-perfect conditions for these submarines to operate undetected conditions Iran has spent four decades studying and training for.
U.S. Navy escorts for commercial vessels are not currently feasible, according to defense officials who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, because Iran retains the ability to strike ships throughout the strait. Iran also maintains underground tunnel networks specifically designed to covertly launch these submarines, making preemptive strikes significantly harder.
A Congressional Research Service report submitted to Congress on March 11, 2026, confirmed that Iran retains the capacity to disrupt commercial shipping through submarines, naval mines, and shore-based missiles and that fully restoring free transit of the Strait of Hormuz could take days, weeks, or potentially months.
Iran’s submarine strategy was never designed to match U.S. naval power directly. It was designed to complicate it and right now, it is working.
Sources: The Telegraph, Fortune, Army Recognition, USNI News, Congressional Research Service (March 11, 2026)