Iran Decks Out Elite Naval Forces With Stealth, Missile Systems

The naval arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps plans to upgrade its speed boats to include stealth capability and missiles, an official said.

“Speed and mobility in the operations have been focused on,” Rear Admiral Ali-Reza Tangsiri was cited as saying by the state-run IRNA news agency. The navy is trying to push the boats’ speed up to 80 knots per hour or even further, he said.

The elite Revolutionary Guards are on regular patrol of the Persian Gulf, where Iran — together with Oman — controls the world’s most important chokepoint for oil, the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S., which re-imposed economic sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal, also maintains a naval presence in the region. The Guards are observing the American naval flotilla in the region, Tangsiri said.