BREAKING: Iran’s Submarines Are Based On a North Korean Design, Carry 3 To 6 People & Can Fire Torpedoes”Clark

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Brian Clark, senior fellow and director of the Centre for Defence Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute and a retired U.S. Navy submariner with more than two decades of service, described the operational concept behind these vessels during an interview with France 24.

Clark, who served as chief engineer on nuclear submarines and worked on the Chief of Naval Operations staff, explained that Iran’s mini submarine force was built around a very specific and effective tactical idea.

The submarines in question are based on the Yono class design, developed originally by North Korea and adapted for Iranian service. They are extremely small by naval standards, carrying crews of only three to six people.

They do not operate in open ocean conditions and are confined to the Persian Gulf, where the shallow and enclosed waters create challenges for larger vessels trying to detect and track them.

Despite their size, they are armed with torpedoes, giving them a meaningful offensive capability against commercial and military ships alike.

In his words, Brian Clark said, “The submarines, which are based on a North Korean design, the Yono design, carry three to six people, and they have torpedoes. The idea is they get close to a ship, they launch a torpedo, and that acts essentially as a mobile mine, and those submarines can be very dangerous, but they can only be at sea for a few days at a time,” he said.

Clark noted that the limited endurance of these vessels has become a decisive factor as the conflict has extended over multiple weeks. Submarines that were at sea when the conflict began would have been forced to return to port long before the current point in the fighting. And when they did, the U.S. military was waiting.

Clark said American forces had been striking the mini submarines as they returned to their bases, effectively shutting down this component of Iran’s underwater threat.