U.S. Navy confirms rogue nation working on underwater stealth technology
Iranian Sub
The U.S. Navy, worried by Iran's increasing underwater capability,
has revealed for the first time that the rogue nation has acquired its
submarine technology largely from North Korea, which has provided both
mini-submarines and manufacturing know-how, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The revelation comes as the Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI,
recently released its latest report on Iran's conventional navy, with
the observation that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC,
is working on programs to achieve an underwater stealth capability.
"Submarines will probably remain a key feature of Iran's naval
order of battle," the ONI report said. "Iran is the only country in the
Persian Gulf region with submarines, and Iranian naval leaders have
stated publicly that they believe submarines are a better value than
other weapons systems."
ONI made its disclosures in a report titled, "Iran's Naval Forces:
From Guerrilla Warfare to a Modern Naval Strategy." For undisclosed
reasons, however, that report later was removed from the ONI website.
For some two decades, North Korea has been known to be involved in
developing midget submarines primarily for special operations purposes.
Indeed, the Department of Defense in the late 1980s was
involved in halting the export of a mini-submarine from Germany to
North Korea. North Korean sailors were in Germany at the time testing
the craft on the Rhein River when the export and testing was halted at
high political levels at U.S. initiative.
It is possible that North Korea developed its indigenous
production know-how from Germany. Today, North Korea not only
indigenously produces mini-submarines but is known to have exported its
know-how – as it has done with its missile technology – to certain
countries, such as Iran.
Iran itself is known to have been looking for a long time for
mini-submarine technology and in the 1980s initially had gone to an
Italian firm which also was assisting Iraq's Saddam Hussein at the time
in developing a production capability.
Iran and Pakistan similarly have been involved in acquiring and sharing the Italian technology to produce their own mini-submarines.
The ONI report said that Iran had acquired the Kajami and
Gahjae-class semi-submersible from North Korea. The North Koreans refer
to the Kajami class as the Taedong-B and call the Gahjae-class
semi-submersible the Taedong-C.
Iran reportedly has a small number of the Taedong-Bs and
Taedong-Cs. Both are said to be equipped with lightweight torpedoes
which have a range of between 3.7 miles to 6.2 miles.
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