3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 9, 2026 02:43 PM IST
While larger vessels in Iran’s naval fleet may have been destroyed, Tehran has displayed its ability to restrict the passage of commercial ships along the Strait of Hormuz using small fast-attack boats, which analysts have dubbed the “mosquito fleet.”
These boats, armed with missiles, guns and other weapons, form a cornerstone of Iran’s asymmetric capabilities. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has deployed these boats to maintain its chokehold on the crucial maritime route that accounts for a fifth of global energy supplies.
Unlike the larger Iranian ships destroyed in the initial weeks of the conflict, these smaller boats are difficult to detect, and analysts argue that the US would require vast amounts of resources to combat this challenge.
Their conceptualisation dates back to Iran’s realisation that the US can decimate its traditional navy as it did during operations in the Persian Gulf in 1988.
Currently, Iran has deployed these boats to attack vessels passing through the critical maritime chokepoint by evading Iran’s blockade. Iran is forcing ships of countries that it considers friendly to pass through the Strait by navigating through its territorial waters – away from the original international shipping lanes – and paying tolls.
Iran is also using ‘midget submarines,’ but these vessels tend to operate out of well-known Iranian ports, making them easier for the US to target, CNN reported.
Asymmetric warfare
Iran brandishes a host of asymmetric capabilities and has used them extensively against the US in the ongoing war. Its heavy usage of its Shahed drones, a series of economical kamikaze UAVs, caught headlines featured in headlines earlier in the conflict as it wore down the US’s expensive air defence systems placed across the Gulf.
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US interceptors costing millions of dollars are being used to take down these drones, which cost $30,000 dollars each. To balance the financial arithmetic in West Asia, the US has reverse-engineered the Shahed drone and developed the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS), which costs $35,000 a piece.
However, in terms of defending against attacks, the US has burned through a sizable portion of its armament to deal with the drone swarms.
A recent New York Times report revealed that the US Central Command has also used up 1,200 Patriot missiles, which cost more than $4 million each. To put this into perspective, the US produced 600 of these interceptors in all of 2025.
Enforcing a new order
Exploiting the chokehold on Hormuz, Iran has been collecting tolls from ships crossing the Strait. Tehran demanded the US’s recognition of Iran’s sovereignty over these waters. Earlier this week, Iran established the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a new government agency to formalise toll collection.
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The US’s security partners in the Gulf have now given a green light to continue Operation Project Freedom, a military initiative to protect commercial shipping and help restore freedom of navigation in the Strait.
The US has urged United Nations member states to support a new Security Council resolution demanding that Iran halt attacks and mining operations in the Strait. However, diplomats say the proposal is likely to face vetoes from China and Russia, as a previous Resolution by Bahrain did.
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