VIGIL CONSILIUMSearch
Context. Not headlines.
Equipment catalogue · shared across conflicts

Naval vessel · Midget and coastal submarine

Ghadir-class midget submarines

Iran's domestically built midget submarines of North Korean lineage — small, numerous, shallow-water boats designed for the strait itself rather than for the open sea, and the underwater counterpart of the Guard Navy's small-craft mass.

GhadirIran, North KoreaFrom 2007; series production through the 2010s

Status as of
2026-09
Last reviewed
2026-09-09

AssessmentModerate confidence

Recognition context, not a stat sheet. The catalogue covers major publicly documented systems relevant to the conflicts Vigil covers — not an exhaustive order of battle. No quantities, availability or current allocations are recorded.

The recordWhat this system is, where it comes from, who operates it and which of Vigil’s modules it is relevant to — with the evidence each of those rests on.

FieldedEvidence: Documented
Silhouette · not to scale

Record

FamilyGhadir
VariantsGhadir; Nahang; Fateh (larger derivative)
OriginIran, North Korea
EraFrom 2007; series production through the 2010s

Conflict relevance

This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.

Iran–Gulf · Force Atlas

Operators

Iran and the Gulf · Primary operator

Iran and the Gulf: Operated by the Artesh Navy in numbers published in the high teens or low twenties; the figure is not adopted here.

Battlefield role

Torpedo and mining threat in the shallow, confined water of the strait and the Gulf, where larger submarines cannot operate.

Strengths

Suited to exactly the geography the Kilos are not, cheap to build in numbers, and hard to detect in water full of shipping and thermal layers.

Limitations

Short endurance, small weapon loads and crews, and a class whose operational availability is unknown from open sources. No numbers or dispositions are adopted.

Documented conflict use

Published launches and exercises; no combat use.

Branch & service operators

PartialConfidence: ModerateSources: IISS Military Balance↗ · Iranian armed-forces institutional referenceMethodologyCorrections

Assessed as of2026-09Last reviewed2026-09-09