STORY: Iranian TV aired video on Thursday showing a small boat speeding through the water carrying soldiers, who boarded two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran's ability to use swarms of small, fast boats in the Strait could undermine suggestions U.S. forces have disabled its naval threat.
And this strategy reveals the challenges of reopening one of the world's most important oil export routes.
On April 13, U.S. President Donald Trump said in a social media post that "Iran's Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated - 158 ships."
But he noted (quote) "What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, "fast attack ships," because we did not consider them much of a threat. Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED."
Maritime security specialists estimate Iran had hundreds, if not thousands, of these boats before the war, often hidden in coastal tunnels, naval bases or among civilian vessels.
Such boats might carry heavy machine guns, rocket launchers and, in some cases, anti-ship missiles.
They may not fare well against U.S. naval ships, but commercial vessels are usually unarmed.
A senior Iranian security official told Reuters the fast boats now serve as the "backbone" of Iran's naval strategy, able to deploy rapidly as part of its "asymmetrical war against the enemy."
