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News & Current Events Apr 24, 2026 at 4:38 AM

Iran fast-boat swarms add to Hormuz threats for shipping

Posted by Direct_Dare_9699

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GreyGreenBrownOakova Apr 24, 2026 +74
They have been building this capability for decades. The lack of countermeasures by the US military shows the complete lack of planning by the Trump administration. Ukrainian forces would be better prepared to deal with this, but Trump says "they have no cards". This is why you build alliances, not destroy them.
74
GoneSilent Apr 24, 2026 +11
30+ boats showing up on sat images crossing just about the whole strait. We need to bring back Thunder in Paradise.
11
G-FAAV-100 Apr 24, 2026 +4
Heard they're busting out the A-10 warthogs instead. Gun with attached plane go BRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
4
VibeAnalyst Apr 24, 2026 +2
"We count 30 Islamic ships, Lord Trump. But they're so small they're evading our turbolasers"
2
GreyGreenBrownOakova Apr 24, 2026 -12
Boats are too slow, [even Apache helicopters are too slow without landing platforms. ](https://youtu.be/s8MHM4I3sK0)This needs a shitload of loitering, high speed, AI assisted drones.
-12
GoneSilent Apr 24, 2026 +3
Yes we are negative 27 slow mq-9 reapers now since Iran.
3
GreyGreenBrownOakova Apr 24, 2026 +4
Too big. They also fire Hellfire missiles at $150,000 each, to sink $5000 Iranian speedboats.
4
InformationHorder Apr 24, 2026 +1
Yeah but those are meant to be expendable since they are unmanned. They can go into much higher risk areas for relatively low cost.
1
table_folder Apr 24, 2026 +1
Send in the [USCG HITRON teams](https://youtu.be/ncTEaYUPGm4?si=TEyshP0XmFXQja1u)
1
planetarybum Apr 24, 2026 +19
"Trump: Boats had not been considered much of a threat." Relied on the overall power of the US military without a detailed strategy and overestimated the fear factor.
19
ChauvinistPenguin Apr 24, 2026 +27
I did a little bit of reading in their speedboat force. Estimated to have somewhere between 3000 and 5000, with various armaments installed including machine guns, torpedoes and SAMs. They're the naval equivalent of a pickup truck with a weapon rigged to the back - perfect for asymmetric warfare.
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CardMechanic Apr 24, 2026 +21
The Hilux of the Seas
21
huhwhuh Apr 24, 2026 +3
1 drone for each boat is the most cost effective way 
3
DrXaos Apr 24, 2026 +7
These are known as targets in Ukraine right now to a $700 drone.
7
KtaadnRota Apr 24, 2026 +1
Yeah a speedboat with a machine gun mounted to it is probably even cheaper than a Shahed drone. It's so trivially c**** to keep the strait closed that I expect they will still be able to do it after their economy collapses completely.
1
teabaggins76 Apr 24, 2026 +4
Not a threat by Trump and Hegseth. To all of thier military advisors who knew better, and should be listened to however of course those people knew. Its just that the US is run by man child morons
4
tri170391 Apr 24, 2026 +1
Given that Ukraine doesn't even have a navy and their drones/drone-boats are wrecking havoc on Russia with an actual Navy lol.
1
Never_barked_a_lie Apr 24, 2026 +19
See: Millenium Challenge 2002. We had all the expectation this would happen over 2 decades ago. "Thus warned of Blue's approach, Red used a fleet of small boats to determine the position of Blue's fleet by the second day of the exercise. In a preemptive strike, Red launched a massive salvo of cruise missiles that overwhelmed the Blue forces' electronic sensors and destroyed sixteen warships: one aircraft carrier, ten cruisers and five of Blue's six amphibious ships. An equivalent success in a real conflict would have resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 service personnel. Soon after the cruise missile offensive, another significant portion of Blue's navy was "sunk" by an armada of small Red boats, which carried out both conventional and suicide attacks that capitalized on Blue's inability to detect them as well as expected."
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Charybdis150 Apr 24, 2026 +4
I see you very conveniently left out the next paragraph: > Such defeat can be attributed to various shortfalls in simulation capabilities and design that significantly hindered Blue Force fighting and command capabilities. Examples include: a time lag in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance information being forwarded to the Blue Force by the simulation master, various glitches that limited Blue ships point-defense capabilities and error in the simulation which placed ships unrealistically close to Red assets. Also, if I recall, the leader of Red got some flak for some…unorthodox claims like that messages passed by motorcycle courier travel at light speed and fast boats (basically converted speedboats) can be armed with missiles and torpedos larger than the boat itself…
4
Never_barked_a_lie Apr 25, 2026
Exercise-isms aren't the relevant part here. The small boats are. There are always white card simulations and buffer margins built into wargames. The tactics were used and we were caged against them, however successful.
0
Thurak0 Apr 24, 2026
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002#Exercise_action The USN really was warned. The only thing they seemingly adapted to was the cruise missile threat as so far no USN ships have been sunk.
0
Tobias---Funke Apr 24, 2026 +4
Trump said all the water boats were destroyed.
4
OldLondon Apr 24, 2026 +19
Trump lies and is an idiot 
19
LilyBelle504 Apr 24, 2026 +7
Conventional military naval vessels? Yea, 50 ships to davey's locker. 3D printed civilian fishing boats turned into an attack boat the next day + guys with AKs on them? Nope. It doesn't take much to stop an unarmed merchant ship. Somali pirates have been doing it for decades.
7
Mister_Brevity Apr 24, 2026 +1
Did he really say water boats :/
1
Aggressive_Chair1470 Apr 24, 2026 +1
no,  he said boats
1
No-Space937 Apr 24, 2026
These don't really matter,  missile and drone attacks are still the main threat and leverage against shipping in the strait.  notice how these only come out during the ceasefire, they would fair just about aswell as those fishing boats have been in the carribean if the war goes hot again.
0
CraftyPerformance272 Apr 24, 2026
Why isn't the USA blowing up those boats like they blew up the drug smuggling boats and submarines?
0
Mercutio999 Apr 24, 2026
Because they don’t have fishermen on them
0
CraftyPerformance272 Apr 24, 2026 +1
Fisherman must make a lot of money in South America if they can afford fishing submarines or if they can afford to put $200,000 plus high speed engines on those tiny boats that aren't good for fishing.
1
GreyGreenBrownOakova Apr 25, 2026
The drug smuggling boats didn't number in their thousands, couldn't shoot back, didn't have bigger missiles and mines in support and couldn't hide along the nearby coastline. If the Navy tried this in the Hormuz straight, they would lose an aircraft carrier.
0
teabaggins76 Apr 24, 2026 -7
That would be a fuckin awesome feeling knowing youre beating the US navy and all its might, resources etc. the salt spray, the speed, the uppers - these sailors must be the "gods of Hormuz"
-7
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