The Iranian Navy say it’s working on a design of a new warship class between 5,000 and 7,000 tons.
Speaking on November the 24th, 2019, the commander of the Iranian Navy, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, was quoted in local media saying that a new warship — which he classified as a ‘destroyer’ — is being developed under the ‘Negin’ project. The vessel is to displace between 5,000 and 7,000 tons, Rear Admiral Khanzadi said.
If the warship is developed as planned, it would make for a significant increase in the capabilities of Iran’s naval forces as the largest vessels in service presently are around 1,300 tons, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported.
Separately, Rear Admiral Khanzadi noted that Iran is equipping its warships with vertical-launching missile systems:
“In line with directives of the Commander in Chief, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, who has called for higher level of immunity for sailing units, Iran’s Navy is devising plans for equipping its vessels with VLS missile cells.”
Two warships in the Moudge class, Damavand and Dena, are to receive the VLS cells.
It’s crazy what you can build with Lego Technic these days!
Why?
Why not?
?
It may well look the part, but has it got the gear to perform it?
Something in that weight class would be totally unnecessary and borderline inefficient in the waters Iran currently operates in. They are probably thinking of something more like a flagship with the range and blue water capacity for showing the flag around the world.
Or for escorting tankers further afield maybe….
The US DIA knocked out a report on Iran’s military capabilities last week. Its a PDF fie and from Gov servers. I’ve scanned it (No nasties). Its a pretty good read which goes into the history, the current levels of manning , and its SOP
Iran Military Power – Defense Intelligence Agency
The mullahs have taken to castigating the plebs as traitors and of being funded by the likes of the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia. So whilst the Mullahs appear to have quelled this round , they have alienated the population and as seen since 2009, the voice inside the country against them is growing
P.S
I’m not of Iranian stock
The ‘Negin’ Project, how very Walking Dead…..
Good luck to them, I’m sure their neighbours are keeching themselves.
Closely resembling a North Sea ferry!
Iran currently operates ~5 frigates, including the one pictured here which is of the Sahand class. From what I can gather, they’re split into three classes: Alvand, Moudge and Sahand. The Alvand class were built in the UK as a variant of the Type 21, with four being delivered, one of which was later sunk. The rest are more modern, home-grown efforts, which do bear some resemblance to their older designs.
Iran is of course capable of building warships, but a shiip of this size is a massive step up for a country used to operating frigates comparable in tonnage to River class patrol vessels of both batches. Factoring in the fact that they recently grounded a modern frigate, which later broke up and sank with the loss of two of her crew, their aspirations will for some, be questionable.
The Moudge class is a home grown update of the Alvand class.
All based on the Vosper mark 5 design, or to us the type 21.
Is there an echo in here tonight?
Hello….Hello….Hello….
My apologies, your post wasn’t showing on my Fisher Price tablet when I wrote mine.
No worries at all Steve, no harm done!
where are their shipbuilding yards? when i was last there (1979) they could hardly build a dhow
I believe most of their shipbuilding activities are centred in Bandar-e Anzali, which also includes submarine construction facilities. Earlier this year, an explosion at that facility killed three.
thats not right. bandar e anzali is on the Caspian!!! I drove up there from Tehran in 1978. could b Bandar Abbas but I was there with the RN in the early 70s no sign of shipbuilding then. I realise that its been 40 years since but there was never a will for shipbuilding in Iran. more likely they will be bought in hulls and fitted out in loal harbours.
Sorry, meant Bandar Abbas. Late night posting clearly isn’t my forte.
I’m not sure if that’s an opinion held by many. The Type 21 was just a stop-gap, born out of the need to replace eight older frigates. The Type 22 and 23 hulls were far superior in my opinion – it’s those we should have focused on.
Much like the Type 31e then! haha
Well if China & Russia want to get their own back on Trump, they could ignore sanctions & supply Iran with the guns/missiles/radars for these new ships. I think China would be happy to be paid in Iranian oil.
Do you reckon they’ll just base it on the Type 23 hull form? Upgrade the radar & VLS etc?
There has been some talk of basing it on a T26 hull form. UKDJ ran an article about it a few months back.
The Canadian version of T26 with its SPY-7 radar & Standard missiles, would be my off the shelf choice for T45 replacement. The Canadian version of T26 is expensive, but so is any other decent air defence Destroyer/Frigate.
I’d be interested to know where they’ll be getting the VLS from; I wasn’t aware that their current (rather small) frigates had any. Will they go Russian or Chinese, as I doubt they have anything in production that could be navalised and used for the purpose?
As far as size goes, I’m wondering what they’re using as the basis. Some of the guys have suggested that their old T21 derivatives will be the design core; that’s a very old design and apparently about 20% of the displacement of their planned destroyer. That’s a ridiculous stretching effort! For perspective, the Arleigh Burke destoryers have increased in displacment by ~1500 tonnes between Flight I and Flight III. That seems like a lot, but is an 18% increase; the Iranian destroyer would be at least 400% greater in displacement! Don’t expect good sea keeping at all, probably even worse in a littoral environment. If not that, then I’d guess an old Russian or Chinese design, but either way pretty pointless for the reasons already laid out in the article and in the comments.
At present, it’s only the newer Frigates in service which are based on the Type 21 design (the original Type 21 being known as the Alvand class in Iranian service). They achieved this through reverse engineering and modernising the platform, creating the Moudge class – and even then, one of these vessels was recently sunk. The vessel pictured here (Sahand) is reported to be an upscaled version of that process and is currently a relatively unique vessel until more are commissioned.
I wouldn’t expect them to use the Type 21 as a basis for a larger vessel in the region of ~5,000 – 7,500 tons. They might use elements of the design, but I would wager it would be a home grown effort, potentially with help from an allied nation. But their lack of experience in operating large vessels, the potential for antiquated design elements, a lack of resources and the recent accidents at their shipyards counts against this proposal.
Iran has held a desire to build bigger vessels for a long time, but has not come through with it. This is much the same as their announced naval deployments further afield. This is an interesting development, but at the moment it strikes me as a load of hot air.