How did that plan work out for Iran last time? Let’s flash back to 1988.
Iranian Boghammar speedboats attack the Scan Bay, a Panamanian jack-up barge with 15 American workers in the Mubarak oil field off the United Arab Emirates. Through a lengthy commo hookup, President Reagan himself authorizes a strike against the boats — the first time U.S. forces had intervened to stop an attack on a non-U.S. flagged vessel in the Gulf, and a harbinger of a formal policy to come. Two A-6E Intruders and an F-14 Tomcat are dispatched to attack; SAG Bravo provides a vector.
The A-6s sink the lead Boghammar with Rockeye cluster bombs. Four other boats flee to the Iranian-controlled Abu Musa island and beach themselves.
Now Iran is vowing suicide attacks, presumably by boat, and drones.
Iranian naval commander said that he is prepared to order suicide attacks, drone strikes, and missile technology to “destroy the U.S. Navy” in any upcoming confrontation, according to an interview printed in Iran’s state-run media.
Iranian Naval Commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, a member of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said that Iran is constantly training and preparing for a clash with the United States, according to a recounting of his remarks provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Fadavi revealed that Iran “compensates for its technological inferiority to the United States with a strategy of asymmetrical warfare, including suicide attacks and the use of speedboat and its missile capability,” according to MEMRI.
Fadavi additionally revealed in another interview earlier this month that the IRGC is preparing to use drones to perform suicide attacks and also arming drones to fire missiles.
While the United States possesses advanced military equipment, “these weapons are ineffective against a new [Iranian] strategy relying on faith, on a desire for martyrdom, and on [Iran's] unique speedboats,” Fadavi said.
Iran’s Navy didn’t seem to eager for martyrdom last time around. And Iran’s religious sector is inspiring a lot less devotion these days.
During the 2006 Lebanon War, Hezbollah working with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard successfully used a missile against an Israeli ship killing four. The vessel didn’t sink and the anti-missile system was not activated. Later Iran used Hezbollah to test a drone over Israel. Neither of these were especially great achievements and they tell us what Iran’s strategy will be.





















