By Emran | 2024-07-28

Iran is not at war, yet its navy has lost four warships in the past seven years, indicating its fleet is no match for the navies of larger powers, analysts said.

The July 9 sinking of the Sahand warship, after it capsized July 7 in the port of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz, is the navy's most recent loss.

A sister ship, the Talayieh, rolled over in dry dock in Bandar Abbas on December 6, 2021, just six months after Iran's second-largest warship, the Kharg, caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman off the coast of Jask Island on June 2.

The Damavand, another Sahand sister ship, capsized and sank on January 10, 2018, after running aground at Bandar-e Anzali in the Caspian Sea.

These incidents indicate Iran's naval fleet -- along with the rest of its military -- is contending with serious issues and a lack of funding, analysts told Pishtaz.

"The Sahand was being repaired while afloat instead of being moved to a dry dock, showing that the Iranian navy did not take safety measures into account," said Puria, a Mashhad-based security analyst.

While the Sahand was only 12 years old, most of the Iranian navy's equipment "has become very outdated," he said. "The regime has not invested enough in its naval fleet, which is why its ships are sinking."

Funds flow to Islamic Republic's proxies

As the Iranian navy struggles to maintain its fleet, the Islamic Republic is funneling large sums of money to its proxies and affiliates, Mahdavi said.

It is diverting significant national resources to these militias instead of protecting the Iranian people, Hamon, a Tehran college student, told Pishtaz.

"Proxy groups, funded by the Iranian people's money, provide no benefit to us," he said. "If a country attacks Iran in the future, the navy will be unable to defend the nation, and warships will sink before entering combat."

The leaders of the Iranian regime "have been deceiving us for years," Nima, a Tehran resident, told Pishtaz.

"When the Sahand was afloat, they inflated its importance ... but the ship sank while anchored in the water," he said. "The Iranian navy hasn't participated in any war for over 40 years, yet its ships are sinking one after another."

"The Iranian regime allocates billions of dollars each year from the country's oil revenues to its proxy groups to keep the flames of war alive in the region," said Sadeq Alipour, an Iranian analyst of Middle Eastern affairs who lives in Türkiye.

Ending the Iranian regime's financial and military support for its proxies would go far in ending regional unrest, he told Pishtaz.