The War Documents of Sea
Speech: Captain Ali Jafari*
Adjusted by Maryam Rajabi
Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi
2017-12-05
We talk very little about sea. This is a historical fact that whenever we made our development sea-centered was heyday of our country's history and whenever we neglected sea was era of decline of our country. The fact is that countries that entered waters and acted wisely and seized seas are powerful countries today. Because of situating between the two depths of Persian Gulf and Oman Sea in the south and sea of Mazandaran in the north, we have a tremendous and superior position, and have capability and conditions to be raised as a maritime power, as in history, in some periods, we were the world's first maritime authority.
31% of our country's borders are water boundaries, and 93% of our business interactions is provided through the same 31%. Sea is a route for transfer and transit and maritime commerce, and this method is the most economical way to trade. Persian Gulf is geographically a half-closed sea. In northern parts, depth of water is low and in southern parts it is more depth. Coasts of Iran which are located in north of Persian Gulf, are almost deep shores and southern shores are almost low. Routes of maritime exchange are routes that do not require any construction or maintenance, and you can trade here with all parts of the world, and this is very valuable.
The mission of Navy of Islamic Republic of Iran Army (in Persian NEDAJA) is protecting sovereignty of the country, and resources and interests of the country on the sea, and in case of a war, it is tasked to destroy the enemy's naval power and vigor, keep inner routes open and close the enemy's routes. What was done in the days of Iraq's imposed war against Iran was to realize this mission and goals. When the war was begun, there was no belief and readiness to enter a war. Despite estimations of the enemy on our forces, it couldn't see and understand zeal of Iranian people. We may have differences of opinion and taste within inside, but when there is an external threat, all these differences are marginalized. The enemy, who had designed a Blitzkrieg (lightening war) for us, was surprised himself. In the first 67 days of the war, the enemy thought that our Navy was not able to get out of its ports, but after implementing a series of operations, including "Morvarid" Operation, the enemy's maritime vigor and power was destroyed, and we became maritime superior power. We fought the enemy in a situation that were in full sanctions, while our enemy was equipped with the most advanced aircrafts, so through this tools, the enemy threat scope was extended to Bandar Abbas and southern regions of the country.
During eight years of Iraq's imposed war against Iran, more than 150 caravan escort operations with more than 10,000 escorting ships; of these 10,000 ships, 259 ships were struck in that unequal conditions; only 20 ships were drowned and in the rest damage control operations were carried out while they safely transporting their loads, replaced, depleted and repaired in port of entry, and continued their sailing.
The missiles that targeted our ships had a radar control system, so with a technical thinking, they designed something called "false target" in factories of port of Bushehr, which was a special geometric shape with aluminum blades. The false target had a primitive shape and was completed over time and was tested experimentally, and when it came to a good result, it was produced in mass production. This device had been designed for distracting missiles equipped with radar of the enemy forces and was one of creativities and initiatives of Naval.
In 2007, the Navy commander, Amir, because of the fact that until then there was no compiled and codified work on role of the navy in the Iraqi imposed war against Iran asked us to help in doing this task. We prepared a constitution that was approved. We created a group in the Office of Naval Studies and Research, titled "Holy Defense Research Group". The documents were dispersed in the naval bases and we had to collect them because we had to do something coherent and documented work. More than one million documents were concentrated. Software were used, and yearly, monthly, daily, hour, minute and in second, a file was opened for each day, and documents of each day were concentrated in its special file to be able to keep in documentation center. At the same time, the documents were scanned and a computer database was also provided. These documents were collected at the beginning of the war until 1987 to be available for researchers. The 31st volume of this book (the collection of books "Calendar of Holy Defense NEDAJA (Navy of Islamic Republic of Iran Army)") was also compiled.
*One of the authors of book collections of "Calendar of Holy Defense Day of NEDAJA (Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army)"; this text is extracted from his speech at the meeting of introduction and review of this collection which was held in Saraye Ahle Ghalam of Khaneh Ketab Institution on September 20, 2017.
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