In the Strait of Hormuz, **Iran** has developed an asymmetrical naval strategy that is impacting the passage of container ships. This strategy employs guerrilla tactics, a shift necessitated by the near destruction of Iran's conventional fleet by **US** and **Israeli** attacks. Unable to rely on traditional military ships, Tehran is leveraging a force comprised of numerous small military vessels armed with missiles, machine guns, and drones. These quick and maneuverable 'mosquito fleets' are capable of engaging ships carrying substantial cargo. In mid-April, former **US** president **Donald Trump** downplayed the threat posed by Iran's fleet. However, less than two weeks later, on April 22, an Iranian attack using these small vessels resulted in the seizure of two large container ships leaving the Strait of Hormuz. ## Enter the Hemostat Fleet According to **Michael Eisenstadt**, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “Iranian fleets of small boats were created during the Iran-Iraq war, with the purpose of disrupting oil tankers in the Persian Gulf that supported the Iraqi war effort,” He draws a parallel to “US torpedo squadrons that disrupted enemy naval traffic in the Pacific Ocean and Mediterranean Sea during World War II.”  *An Islamic Revolution Guards Corps vessel allegedly engaged in an operation to seize ships attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz, April 21, 2026. Photograph: MEYSAM MIRZADEH/Getty Images* “The effectiveness of Iran's fleet of small boats comes from their numbers and their use in swarms, which makes them difficult to counter,” Eisenstadt adds. “Iran has over a thousand of these small boats armed with rockets, machine guns, anti-ship missiles, and mines.” This allows Tehran to project a serious naval threat despite the losses to its more conventional military fleet. “As Iran showed in March, it can close the straits by launching only a few dozen drones against oil tankers and cargo ships in the Persian Gulf,” says Eisenstadt. With a large number of vessels and support drones, Iran possesses “much more than it needs to effectively force the closure of the strait,” Eisenstadt states, emphasizing Iran's proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, which enables systematic deterrence against container ships and oil tankers. “It is therefore important to see the Iranian threat as multidimensional, involving a diverse range of capabilities to exploit its favorable geographic location,” he concludes. ## A Tactic in the Hands of the Pasdaran Iran's conventional navy operates separately from the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), also known as the Pasdaran. This parallel chain of command has enabled Tehran to cultivate a diverse guerrilla doctrine. The hemostat fleet falls under the purview of the Pasdaran. A report by analyst **Can Kasapoglu** at the Hudson Institute notes that “most of the Iranian conventional platforms sunk or put out of commission by allied attacks belonged to … Iran's regular armed forces. In contrast, the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guardians maintain their own asymmetrical naval component, designed specifically for combat operations in the Strait of Hormuz, much of which has remained intact.”  *A Revolutionary Guards boat attacks a naval vessel during a three-day naval exercise in the Gulf, April 22, 2010. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images* Eisenstadt explains that “the IRCG navy, which operates in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, is still fully active and has always been the most important organization when it comes to threatening maritime traffic across the Strait.” Beyond the vessels themselves, Iran has developed a comprehensive system, including coastal bases, hidden infrastructure, radar, and the integration of mines, drones, and civilian vessels, to support these operations. The Hudson Institute report describes this architecture as designed “to impose friction and attrition rather than to seek or win a decisive naval engagement,” further detailing the “maritime component being reinforced with a robotic element consisting of unmanned systems,” and vessels “configured as explosive-laden suicide crafts.” The armaments factor also contributes to instability. Eisenstadt emphasizes the importance of cruise missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles, which, alongside other assets, create a layered network of systems capable of striking targets throughout the Gulf. Iran's Shahed drones, which can strike ships and support guerrilla operations, add another layer of threat in the Strait of Hormuz. ## Guerrilla Warfare at Sea Amid the threat of **US** air raids, “Iran keeps many of these boats in reinforced underground tunnels along the Persian Gulf coast, and these tunnels and the boats inside them will likely prove difficult to destroy,” Eisenstadt says. Iran's apparent objective in the Strait of Hormuz is to create an increasingly unstable environment. The Hudson Institute report states that “Strategically, this approach seeks not control but denial. It complicates access to key waterways, raises the economic and military costs of intervention, and sustains coercive leverage without escalating into full-scale war.” Furthermore, the remaining systems “constitute a military architecture that resists decisive destruction,” the analysis says. “These assets can be contained, but not fully annihilated.” Experts highlight the difficulty in eliminating these boats due to their concealed locations. “It would require a sustained campaign to destroy this fleet,” Eisenstadt says, adding: “So unless the US is willing to land ground forces to conduct raids inside this complex network of tunnels, I don't think they will be able to destroy these capabilities.” *This story originally appeared on [Wired.it](https://www.wired.it/article/iran-flotta-zanzara-mosquito-fleet)*