Flying boats: The new terror of the sea?

I dunno if AWACs could detect these as well as they detect a large metallic destroyer or even patrol boat. For one thing the body can be made entirely of fiberglass so no blip there. Then the prop can easily be painted with radar absorbing paint and the motor can also be shielded similarly.

Also since these only cost $5000 or so to buy then it wouldn't be that hard to rig up 1000 of them where about 900 are unmanned decoys that home in on targets while 100 of them might have, optionally, special forces at the helm. This would draw out a lot of wasted missiles.  $10 million could buy the exaustion of 2000 precision missiles of the USN.

Also 20 or so could be rigged with pricier SAMs designed to launch if they detect fighters on the horizon.

Iran only has 2 or 3 Kilo subs. And I would bet that Navy seals have plastered sonar sensors in every square mile of the persian gulf which is quite shallow and sub-unfriendly to begin with. I think if war did break out all three of those subs would be sunk in less than an hour. The only way they could possibly survive is by staying in the gulf of oman, and I am sure the USN has made it their top job to litter key points there with sensors as well. 

Originally posted by Sparten Sub hunting is a pretty impricse art. In the falklands the Argentine WWII era sub managed to elude the entire Royal navy.

The Argentine naval war took place in the south atlantic ocean. By comparison the Persian gulf is like a bathtub. There is no comparison. The US navy has been playing cat and mouse games with the soviet navy all throughout the cold war in every ocean of the world. Iran is just getting started, I seriously doubt Iranian subs will be able to survive more than a few hours in the Persian gulf. The arabian sea...maybe but I am convinced personally that the top priority of the US navy has been to swarm the coastline around Iran with sensors.

This is why I think the lunatic like kamikaze attacks would be very effective as a deterrence. Its sheer insanity for a country like Iran to take on the US and expect to survive intact for very long. However, its also pretty close to lunacy for the USN to have half its ships sunk and all its bases turned to rubble as well when it does not have to be that way. Those three Kilo subs could be sunk within hours...its just 3 subs remember. But 10,000 flying boats of which 9,000 or more are unmanned remotely operating or auto operating drones would create a logistical nightmare for the US to deal with. How do you deal with a swarm attack of 10,000 amphibious contraptions of which 9,000 are unmanned decoys? Does the US even have 10,000 missiles? Can you imagine how many fighter jets will have to be sent ahead to try and take these out...and how many missiles can each fighter carry anyway? 20 max? And each one of those aircraft would be highly vulnerable to SAM attack. I initially thought these boats were a bit of a joke but the more I think about it, the more useful these boats can be to a technologically disadvantaged navy like Iran's.