Reflecting on Israel- Iran's 12 day confrontation: How the Iran navy suffered Israel assault

Middle East -Iranian naval forces did not escape in the recent 12-day Israeli aerial assault on Iran, which began on June 12.

Looking at the first two days of the Israeli attack, regular Iranian Navy (Nedaja) vessels largely remained in port. As naval vessels are at their most vulnerable when tied up in port, this move suggested that the Nedaja command was putting on a non-confrontational display that assumed that Israeli targeting priorities would be elsewhere.

On June 14, Nedaja vessels left the Bandar Abbas Naval Harbour - which is home base to most of the principal ships of the Nedaja Southern Fleet - in somewhat of a hurry, taking up dispersal positions largely in the sea area between Bandar Abbas and the islands of Qeshm and Hormuz. As of June 28, a single Hengam-class landing ship had returned to port, but the rest of the Nedaja fleet has not yet come home.

Seen now from evidence on the ground, the targeting focus of the Israeli attacks was evidently air defence assets, nuclear weapons-associated research, production and scientists, key IRGC leaders and the IRGC Aerospace.

The bulk of this target deck fell under the organizational structure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Hence the Nedaja’s initial assumption that they would not be a targeting priority turned out to be largely correct.

However, the regular Armed Forces were not exempt. The Artesh Chief of Staff, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, assassinated on June 13, was probably targeted because, besides being a hardline ideologue, he was assessed to be significantly more competent than anyone likely to succeed him.

On June 21, buildings of the Nedaja’s 1st Naval District at Bandar Abbas were attacked, and three conscripts killed; this suggests either that a headquarters building was struck which was not manned at the time, or that a storage depot was hit; in either case, the conscripts who died were likely to have been guarding the facility. 

Meanwhile, according to Social media reports, the targets attacked were armouries containing unmanned aerial vehicles and munitions; hence, by this period, it is reported that ships of the 1st Naval District had since left the nearby Bandar Abbas Naval Harbour.