Book contents
- Defending Iran
- Defending Iran
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- 1 Iran’s Defense and Security Doctrine
- 2 Iran’s Threat Perceptions
- 3 Defense Institutions
- 4 Iran’s Military–Industrial Complex
- 5 Structure and Makeup of Iran’s Armed Forces
- 6 Iran’s Ballistic Missiles and Space Program
- 7 Cybersecurity
- 8 Naval Forces
- 9 Iran’s Drone Capabilities
- 10 Proxies and Partners
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
8 - Naval Forces
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2021
- Defending Iran
- Defending Iran
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- 1 Iran’s Defense and Security Doctrine
- 2 Iran’s Threat Perceptions
- 3 Defense Institutions
- 4 Iran’s Military–Industrial Complex
- 5 Structure and Makeup of Iran’s Armed Forces
- 6 Iran’s Ballistic Missiles and Space Program
- 7 Cybersecurity
- 8 Naval Forces
- 9 Iran’s Drone Capabilities
- 10 Proxies and Partners
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
For millennia, Iranian leaders have perceived strong naval forces as crucial to securing foreign trade and cementing the country’s predominance in the strategic Persian Gulf. Furthermore, given Iran’s huge size, long history, and strong national identity, its leaders have seen themselves and their maritime presence as the guarantor of regional security and the presence of foreign troops in the region as its impediment. Iranian strategists learned important lessons from the direct confrontation with the technologically superior US Navy at the end of the war with Iraq. Based on these lessons, since the 1980s, Iran has maintained two naval forces – the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) – which are examined in detail in this chapter.
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- Information
- Defending IranFrom Revolutionary Guards to Ballistic Missiles, pp. 157 - 182Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021