Majority of small vessels used by IRGC to man Strait of Hormuz still operational

More than 60% of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) naval fleet tasked with patrolling the Strait of Hormuz is still intact after six weeks of war with the US and Israel, according to The Wall Street Journal, Report informs via The Times of Israel.

The news comes as US President Donald Trump has declared that the US Navy will impose a blockade on the strait following failed ceasefire talks in Pakistan.

The IRGC mans the strait with a fleet of small speedboats and attack craft equipped to guard the key waterway with missiles and mines. These boats are harder to target than the traditional battleships used by the Iranian navy, the update says, as they often evade satellite detection due to their size. The IRGC also stores these boats in "underground pens," the Journal says, further hampering efforts to locate them.

As a result, US and Israeli strikes against Iran's naval capabilities mainly targeted its traditional navy rather than the IRGC's.

Still, some IRGC vessels were destroyed in strikes, including the IRIS Shahid Sayyad Shirazi, capable of firing antiship and surface-to-air missiles, and the Shahid Bagheri, the IRGC's largest drone carrier in the Persian Gulf.

But the largely intact fleet of small boats and attack craft should allow the IRGC to continue to control the Strait of Hormuz with ease, including by laying mines down throughout the narrow waterway, the Journal says, with the heavy damage inflicted to Iran's traditional navy making "relatively little difference" in this area.