We are in a paradigm shattering moment, where the loss of legitimacy and moral authority by the US leadership is so complete, that they are allowing a despotic radically conservative Muslim regime, with the help of a famously creative film industry – portray itself as the plucky underdog, complete with a hip-hop soundtrack.
Clearly they’ve been taking lessons from Ukraine’s playbook, and added a few pages of their own.
The emergence of Iran’s electrically powered Azhdar stealth underwater drone (UUV) is intensifying strategic anxiety across global naval commands, because the platform’s near-silent lithium-battery propulsion, extended endurance profile, and asymmetric cost structure collectively threaten to reshape maritime security calculations in chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, where even low-cost unmanned systems could disrupt global shipping.
The Azhdar underwater unmanned vehicle’s operational concept reflects a broader technological shift in naval warfare, where quiet electric propulsion, autonomous targeting algorithms, and swarm-based deployment models are beginning to erode the traditional dominance of large surface fleets that historically secured narrow maritime passages and protected high-value commercial shipping lanes.
Iran’s potential deployment of the Azhdar unmanned underwater vehicle by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) introduces a disruptive variable into Gulf security dynamics because its stealth characteristics, sustained patrol endurance, and autonomous strike potential could allow relatively inexpensive systems to challenge technologically superior naval forces operating inside the confined waters of the Strait of Hormuz
I suppose I probably shouldn’t be enjoying these as much as I do.