The Special Unit of NEDSA (), also known as Sepah Navy Special Force (S.N.S.F.) (), is a

Takavar This is a list of special forces units in Iranian Armed Forces and police. The name can refer to members of regular units who have successfully completed Commando or Ranger training courses and marines trained as Frogman, or the hand-selected and ...

unit in the

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is a multi-service primary branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, Iranian Armed Forces. It was officially established by Ruhollah Khom ...

(IRGC) Navy stationed in the Greater Farur Island of the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

Mission set

The unit has

marines Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included Raid (military), raiding ashor ...

frogmen A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater. The term often applies more to professional rather than recreational divers, especially those working in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some Europea ...

and

sniper A sniper is a military or paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with telescopic si ...

s specializing in heliborne,

amphibious warfare Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conduc ...

and

naval boarding Naval boarding is an offensive (military), offensive military tactics, tactic used in naval warfare to come up against (or alongside) an enemy watercraft and attack by inserting combatants aboard that vessel. The goal of boarding is to invade ...

. SNSF personnel train in combat diving, direct action, counterterrorism, special reconnaissance, underwater demolitions, amphibious assault, hostage rescue, and maritime

visit, board, search, and seizure Visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) is the term used by United States military and law enforcement agencies for Naval boarding, maritime boarding actions and tactics. VBSS teams are designed to capture enemy vessels, combat Counter-terrorism ...

(VBSS) operations. Among the unit’s missions is to protect Iranian commercial vessels, and SNSF personnel have deployed to the Gulf of Aden to assist with Iranian counterpiracy operations.

Operations in Gulf of Aden

In 2012, the force conducted a 117-days operation in

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden (; ) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago, Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the south. ...

to combat

piracy off the coast of Somalia Piracy off the coast of Somalia occurs in the Gulf of Aden, Guardafui Channel, and Indian Ocean, in Somali territorial waters and other surrounding places and has a long troubled history with different perspectives from different communities. I ...

, which included collaboration with the American forces, such as a

Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a four-blade, twin-engine, medium-lift military utility helicopter manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky submitted a design for the United States Army's Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS ...

providing

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

for the unit's ship.

''MSC Aries'' ship seizure

On April 13, 2024, Iranian naval commandos seized the ''

MSC Aries On 13 April 2024, Iran seized ''MSC Aries,'' a Portuguese- registered and Madeira-flagged container ship owned by Gortal Shipping and leased to Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), which Iran claimed was linked to Israel. The ship, with a crew ...

'', a Portuguese- flagged civilian container ship belonging to Gortal Shipping, for “violating maritime laws”.

Weapons

The Iranian produced Tondar SMG (

Heckler & Koch MP5 The Heckler & Koch MP5 (, ) is a submachine gun developed in the 1960s by German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It uses a similar modular design to the Heckler & Koch G3, and has over 100 variants and clones, including selective fire, Se ...

) 9mm is known to be used by the unit. The Spanish produced Star Model Z84 sub-machine gun is also favored by the unit. The Iranian produced AKM 7.62x39mm is also used by the unit in some situations.

AK-103 The AK-103 is an assault rifle designed by Russian small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov. History The AK-103 was officially offered for export on March 13, 1993. Design details It is an AK-100 derivative of the AK-74M that is chambered ...

is used by this force.

Gallery

File:IRGC naval exercise-2015 (11).jpg, Takavar members in

Great Prophet IX The Great Prophet IX () was an Iranian war games exercise in the general area of the Strait of Hormuz on Larak Island, Persian Gulf. It started on February 25, 2015, and finished on February 27, 2015. The exercise was notable for using a full sca ...

maneuver, 25–27 February 2015 File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (2).jpg, An IRGC

frogman A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater. The term often applies more to professional rather than recreational divers, especially those working in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some Europea ...

in an amphibious exercise of

File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (1).jpg, File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (6).jpg,

References

Special forces of Iran Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Naval special forces units and formations {{iran-mil-stub