Ukrainian Press: Iran Mirrors Ukraine's Asymmetric Playbook in the Persian Gulf — and the US Is Struggling to Respond
Despite suffering the destruction of much of its conventional navy, Iran has managed to shut down roughly 20% of global oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — and analysts say the tactics being deployed echo a lesson that was already taught in Ukraine, one that Western military planners apparently failed to absorb.
According to a detailed analysis published by Euromaidan Press on 18 March, Tehran is deploying anti-ship missiles, kamikaze naval drones, and fast attack speedboats to deny commercial passage through the strait — the narrow chokepoint that carries a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade. The approach bears a striking resemblance to the asymmetric naval warfare Ukraine has employed against Russia's Black Sea Fleet since 2022.
"We have to constantly convince our partners to pay attention to Ukraine's experience," retired Ukrainian naval officer Pavlo Lakiychuk told the outlet, noting that Western counterparts had repeatedly told him their wars are fought differently — with air superiority established quickly and conflicts resolved in days. "What's happening in the Persian Gulf is evidence that everything turns out to be not so simple," he added.
Military scholar Omar Ashour of the University of Exeter put it more starkly: the United States was not outgunned — it was out-adapted. "This out-adaptation was born in Ukraine," he said, warning that any military failing to upgrade its doctrines and operational concepts for this style of sea warfare faces the same fate.
The core logic of asymmetric naval warfare, as laid out in the *Euromaidan Press* report, rests on two advantages: cost and concealment. Cheap, mobile weapons platforms — whether uncrewed surface vessels (USVs), anti-ship missiles, or speedboats — can deny sea access to a far superior conventional force at a fraction of the cost of traditional naval assets. Ukraine demonstrated this by sinking Russia's flagship Moskva with Neptune missiles and later using Magura and Sea Baby drones to eliminate a significant portion of the Black Sea Fleet, including a submarine.
Iran's arsenal follows similar logic. Its Noor and Qader missiles skim along the surface at low altitude to defeat radar detection, while its USVs — though generally less sophisticated than Ukrainian models — have already struck at least one oil tanker. Mobile launch platforms allow Iranian forces to hide, fire, and relocate before retaliatory strikes can be mounted.
The Euromaidan Press report also highlights a sobering 2025 NATO wargame off Portugal's coast, where a Ukrainian team operating Magura V7 drones struck multiple simulated targets before NATO vessels were even aware of the incoming attack. Five minutes after the strike, NATO participants reportedly asked via shared chat whether an attack was coming. It had already happened.
Analyst Bogdan Popov of Ukraine's Triada Trade Partners advisory group told Euromaidan Press that interest in Ukrainian naval technology is now surging among regional actors considering both escort operations in the Strait of Hormuz and potential strikes on Iranian oil infrastructure, including Kharg Island export terminals.
The broader takeaway, in Ashour's words, is unsparing: "The lesson is brutal — layered, cheap, scalable, beats exquisite, expensive, and finite."