The United States Central Command (US CENTCOM) on Wednesday announced that it had struck nearly 2,000 targets in Iran since Operation Epic Fury began, adding that it had devastated Tehran’s naval might, sinking 17 vessels including one submarine.
“We’re also sinking the Iranian navy… the entire navy,” said US Central Command’s Brad Cooper in a briefing, adding, “Thus far, we’ve destroyed 17 Iranian ships, including the most operational Iranian submarine that now has a hole in its side.”
“For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping. Today, there is not a single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Straight of Hormuz, or Gulf of Oman,” Cooper further said, declaring, “We will not stop.”
Following the CENTCOM briefing, open source intelligence (OSINT) page OSINTtechnical said that rumors had surfaced yesterday in Iranian media circles about the IRIS Fateh (hull number 920), the lead submarine of its class, being attacked near the port city of Bandar Abbas.
news outlet Visegrád 24meanwhile, reported on Wednesday that the IRIS Fateh had been destroyed by the US.
All about IRIS Fateh
The lead submarine of the ubiquitous Fateh class, the IRIS Fateh was commissioned into the Islamic Republic of the Iran Navy some time in the mid 2010s, with date estimates ranging between 2013 and 2016.
What is confirmed, however, is that the IRIS Fateh took part in Iran’s large-scale Zulfiqar-99 military exercise held in September 2020, its first public appearance since reports of its launch.
The IRIS Fateh is the Iranian Navy’s first indigenous, fully-sized submarine, as per Forbesalthough it is basic by US Navy standards.
Measuring 157 feet long and 14 feet across, the IRIS Fateh has a displacement of about 600 tonnes, in comparison with the 18,750 tonnes of the US Navy’s Ohio-class submarines.
However, despite its relatively modest tonnage, the Fateh was a regular patrol submarine capable of engaging surface targets.
While the Fateh has not seen combat, it was involved in a flare-up involving the US earlier.
In April 2023, Iran claimed that its navy had forced a US submarine to surface as it entered the Gulf.
“The US submarine was approaching while submerged, but the Iranian submarine Fateh detected it and carried out… maneuvers to force it to surface as it went through the Strait (of Hormuz). It had also entered into our territorial waters but … it corrected its course after being warned,” Iranian navy commander Shahram Irani said on state television, as per reuters.
However, the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet denied that such an incident had taken place, calling the claim “more Iranian disinformation.”
