By William Tucker
About two weeks ago my counterpart, Charles Russo, posted on the threat made by Iran to deploy its naval vessels off the east coast of the United States. The statement was made by Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari during a speech commemorating the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, but he didn’t elaborate on how Iran would accomplish this deployment, nor what types of vessels would be used to support the expedition (It should be noted that Sayyari is the commander of the Iranian Navy and not the naval arm of the IRGC). It is true that Iran successfully deployed two vessels, the Alvand and the Kharg, to the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal back in February, but a transatlantic crossing for such a small, poorly equipped navy is another challenge entirely.
The week after Sayyari made his announcement MEMRI, The Middle East Media Research Institute, found two maps and some accompanying details on an Iranian website that showed the route Iran planned to take in its deployment to the U.S. Unsurprisingly, the map showed a transiting of the Suez canal to the Mediterranean, from which the ships would enter the Atlantic and make their way to Cuba. The other map MEMRI posted showed several Central and South American countries highlighted with different colors, but no additional information was given. If I had to guess, these were probably port calls that the Iranian ships could make for scheduled visits or emergencies.
When looking at Iran’s naval inventory it appears that only two frigates are available for deployment plus resupply ships. Such a small deployment would not threaten U.S. national security, but in this case that may not be the point. Iran does desire some rudimentary blue water capability and longer voyages allow their navy to train sailors for riggers of a life at sea. Sayyari’s announcement of a naval deployment may sound menacing, but in reality Iran has a long way to go before they can challenge U.S. Naval dominance in their own backyard let alone on the high seas.
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