New destroyers join IRGC naval force
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ Navy on Monday took delivery of two new patrol and combat destroyers.
In a ceremony at Iran’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas, the “Sayyad Shirazi” and “Hassan Baqeri” military vessels, named after two former senior commanders, joined the fleet of the IRGC’s Navy, Tasnim News Agency reported.
The two stealth destroyers are the second and third models of Soleimani-class vessels, the first of which, unveiled on January 6, has been named after Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a commander of the Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, who was killed alongside Iran’s Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.
The two new ocean-going catamarans are armed with various strike and air defense missile systems, including the ‘Navvab’ vertical launching system (VLS) for firing ‘Sayyad’ cruise missiles with a range of 700 kilometers.
Each destroyer, weighing 600 tons, is powered by four propulsive engines and can carry a combat helicopter and three light corvettes.
Iran’s Navy has in recent years achieved self-sufficiency in manufacturing surface and sub-surface vessels. It has also increased its presence in international waters to protect naval routes and provide security for merchant vessels and tankers.