Since launching Operation Epic Fury on Saturday, the United States has claimed to have completely destroyed Iran’s naval fleet.
If true, it would represent a significant victory for the US and Israel in its joint war against the Islamic Republic, which has a powerful naval force.
At a press conference on Wednesday, defence secretary Pete Hegseth said that the “Iranian Navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf”, with US strikes damaging at least 17 naval vessels.
His comments came shortly after a US submarine torpedoed the Iranian frigate warship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, in what Hegseth claimed was the first time an American ship had sunk an enemy vessel since World War II. At least 80 people on board the ship were killed.
Iran has had some form of an organised naval force since around 500BC, when its ships battled enemies in the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and Mediterranean. Over the centuries it has evolved and grown into a significant force.
But in a matter of days, attacks by the US and Israel are thought to have done significant damage to Iran’s fleet. Below The Independent looks at the power of the Iranian Navy and its importance in the war.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Navy consists of 18,000 troops and 2,600 separate marines, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
According to the IISS’s 2026 annual assessment of global military capabilities and defence economics, the Iranian naval fleet includes:
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Naval Forces is a separate force with 20,000 troops including 5,000 marines.
It has a fleet of:
The IRGC naval fleet is equipped with helicopters, UAVs and air-launched missiles, as well as laser-guided and electro-optical guided bombs.
The oldest vessel in the fleet is the 1936 IRIS Hamzeh, a 539 tonne corvette that was originally built as a royal yacht for Reza Shah before it was converted to a warship. Iran added multiple new ships to its fleet last year, including the IRIS Kurdistan auxiliary ship, a 45,500 tonne Makran class forward base ship.
The fleet’s largest tonnage ship, the IRIS Makran commissioned in 2021, was 121,000 metric tonnes at full load. A former crude oil tanker converted into a warship, the vessel could carry six helicopters.
However, the Makran was destroyed in an attack by US forces on vessels moored at the Bandar Abbas naval base.
