🔗 Share this article

A series of joint attacks has allegedly destroyed or damaged at least 11 Iranian naval vessels starting the weekend, recently obtained orbital imagery show, with launch facilities and enrichment plants also sustaining hits.

Images of the southern Konarak naval naval base and the Bandar Abbas port facility, which is located on the Strait of Hormuz and houses the headquarters of the Iran's naval force, depict smoke billowing from a number of ships on Monday and Tuesday.

Naval Assets Incurred Significant Damage

Included in the ships sunk was the Makran, the country's largest naval vessel which had served as a unmanned aerial vehicle platform. Orbital photos indicated black smoke rising from the vessel which had been stationed at the Bandar Abbas naval base.

Analytical reports suggest that at least five ships at the port were "struck or destroyed". Imagery of the south end of the harbor depict plumes ascending from the Makran, while additional ships are visibly impacted, with a single one seen burning.

Over at Konarak, photos display multiple stricken vessels, with analysis identifying damage to a half-dozen warships. Images taken on Monday also demonstrate that multiple structures at the installation have been demolished.

"For decades the Iranian regime has threatened commercial vessels," the head of US Central Command declared. "At present, there is not one Iranian vessel at sea in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz or Sea of Oman, and we will persist."

A number of vessels reportedly sunk may have been concealed in aerial photos by cloud or smoke, or hit in open waters, and have not been independently verified. Separate reports stated that an Iranian vessel was going down off the coast of Sri Lankan waters, resulting in a rescue operation.

Missile Installations and Nuclear Locations Hit

The destruction of Tehran's launch facilities and the prevention of enrichment activities were stated as other aims of the air campaign. Aerial imagery also showed strikes on the southerly Khorgu and north-western Tabriz missile facilities, and at the Konarak base, where weapons bunkers and bunkers were hit.

Over at the Choqa Balk-e drone base to the west of Kermanshah, widespread destruction was observed to storage buildings, bunkers and unmanned aircraft systems.

Impact was also noted at a radar installation at the Zahedan airbase airbase in eastern parts of the country, close to the frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Perhaps most notably, the most recent series of attacks have reportedly targeted installations at Natanz – long said to be at the core of Iran's atomic program. A global monitoring agency stated that the damaged structures were used for access to the facility's below-ground nuclear plant and that "no nuclear fallout" was anticipated.

Wider Fallout and Analysis

Defense experts indicated that the strikes appeared to have "greatly reduced" the Iran's naval capacity to sustain traditional warfare using its largest vessels. Nevertheless, it was emphasised that Iran still has the capacity to launch unconventional attacks at sea through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, mini-submarines and its so-called "shadow fleet" of oil ships.

The overall scope of the destruction caused to Iran's defense infrastructure has yet to be fully assessed, with attacks reportedly continuing. Imagery also shows widespread destruction to the main offices of the the IRGC in the capital Tehran.

A significant number of non-military structures also seem to have been struck in the capital city and throughout the country since the fighting started. Reports of deaths from ground sources state that many hundreds of non-combatants may have been lost their lives in the attacks.

As the situation develops, analysis of aerial photographs will persist to document the evolving battlefield picture.