This article builds on an old one on the Covert Shores blog. The intelligence community designation 'Taedong-B' refers to a boatyard in North Korea where the craft were built Google Maps. Two examples formed part of an arms shipment sent to Iran in In Iranian service it was renamed the Kajami Class, and more recently as the Zulfikar. Iranian media and internet claims that it is of Iranian orgin are plainly mistaken. Early designs were simply fast launches disguised as fishing boats, but by the s some versions were semi-submersible.
By the s they were fully submersible but could not run underwater. The underwater mode was used only for evasion, waiting inshore, and as a cache. In a lesson learned from a incident off the South Korean coast when an I-SILC was sunk kilometers southwest of Pusan, the newer models are able to move while submerged thanks to electric propulsion.
In order to simplify construction and reduce cost the electric propulsion uses separate propellers to the main diesel engines. The thusters are not steerable but small rudders are mounted directly behind them. This has led to the type being described as a torpedo boat, but logically these light weapons are only for self-defense.
The Taedong-B's primary mission will be Special Operations. TBC -modest Maximum Operating depth: This article builds on an old one on the Covert Shores blog The intelligence community designation 'Taedong-B' refers to a boatyard in North Korea where the craft were built Google Maps.
