The Iranian warships are heading to St. Petersburg to participate in a naval parade hosted by Russia.

Defence specialist and open source intelligence expert @CovertShores is following the event closely, we recommend you follow him for more. He can be found on Twitter here.

The pair, the frigate IRINS Sahand and former oil-tanker-turned warship IRINS Makran report USNI here, sailed up the West coast of Africa and past Spain and France before approaching the southern coast of England.

“When Makran was first observed in November 2020, the ship was thought by western observers to be a forward base ship. This equated its role to that of the U.S. Navy’s Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) ships, like the USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams (ESB-4). ESBs act as a floating base for operations and can carry or support a range of small boats and aircraft. Makran has exercised with launching unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and mini submarines for special forces, implying an amphibious warfare role. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp Navy has two forward base ships, although both are much smaller than Makran.”

The two evssels were also pictured together in January.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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67 COMMENTS

  1. The nest article will read ‘Iranian Warship sinks in Channel’! (Also re those Sea Stallions the reverse-engineered copy of the Stallions that were abandoned by the Americans after Op Eagle Claw

    • Iran has never fully reverse engineered the RH-53D it is a pretty complex helicopter, they probably at best managed to reverse engineer some components or found alternatives. Of the five captured Eagle claw examples they were gutted for parts to keep the six RH-53D purchased during the Shah active. In more recent years they have apparently been able to restore one of the Eagle Claw examples to flight status using spares gained through sanctions busting.

      At best that is a sticking plaster solution and in the long term the remaining RH-53D they operate will wear out and retire. Irans domestic aviation industry has had more success reverse engineering simpler types like the Bell 206 as the Shahed 278 but there are some question marks over how much of the components for the type were domestically produced vs being sourced via the grey market and sanctions busting. There are a lot of Bell 206 around the world flying and broken down for spares or scrap making it very difficult to prevent Iran sourcing what they need to make more.

    • Well it’s not as if the royal navy fabricate warning shots and the RAF fabricating gun runs like the Russians did in the black sea on type 45.

  3. The weather is good at the moment so I suggest that an Archer class is sent out, with a bunch of URNU trainees to take the photos. No need to disturb summer leave for the bigger ships. On the other had POW could be sent out to do a steam past?

    • I’m not sure I would bother sending anything out at all unless we have reason to believe they present a serious threat. Surely they are just trying to annoy us and personally I just am a little amused. Sometimes it is better to just ignore them.

      • I lost any interest after the Iranians called it a fleet frightening the daylights out of the US and Europe in the Atlantic. I guess it might inspire yet another new design for a Russian Carrier mind if it finally reaches St Petersburg without hitting a Danish Island.

  4. I am totally intrigued by this and how the Iranians will spin this event or us for that matter. I think we should dispatch the Yorkshire Belle from Bridlington to monitor potential pollution.

  5. Fair play, plenty RN/USN etc ships cutting around their neck of the woods and its open sea. I’m sure it will be spun as ‘stickin it to da man’ back home and nobody outside of sites like this will give a toss over here.

    • I’m sure you are right, still we enjoy the event for as long as the rules of the game are kept.

    • Well as I related earlier they have been for a month or so giving it big about how their ‘fleet’ is terrorising the unbelievers in the Atlantic showing that they aren’t safe anywhere. If only we had a wooden model to tow out and bomb as they sale by eh.

    • Jingoistic and ignorant comments aside, these boats are on their way back from Venezuela. there was a time when the RN of the ‘Imperial’ Iranian Navy shared many mutual port visits. One should respect their ability to independently build and put to sea boats that can transverse the oceans.

      • X,
        I can see where you are coming from, but for the past 40 odd years the Iranians have been nothing but belligerent to the West. Especially the Uk. Now if they can go out of their way to burn the British flag, attack the British embassy (a number of times) Kidnap British citizens including a bunch of RN sailors, have their puppets build up a store of containing 1.5 tonnes of  explosives in London ban the BBC, fund militant pressure groups in the Uk (Islamic Human Rights Commission)  fund nutter MPs and basically bad mouth the Uk every chance they get, then don’t expect kinds words and a kiss from the British people. Maybe if you asked the Iranian Mullahs to give it a rest, then maybe, just maybe a lot of people around the world may start being nice to them.

        Oh by the way, the 7th fleet (the 2 ships in question) have travelled from Iran and not Iran, to date not one Iranian naval ship has visited the socialist paradise of Venezuela 

        • F, fair enough but as ever, there are two sides to every historical story. One is reminded of a 1953 MI6 backed coup that replaced a democratically elected prime minister by an poppet monarch. Alas, there is a lot of bad blood.

          • Yes we keep hearing of the MI6 coup in 1953, but that was almost 70 years ago. The people who carried it out are long dead. The world has moved on and why are we judging the actions of yesteryear with the morals of today. But worse of all these historical events which pressure groups love to bash others (primarily the UK) never mention events in countries they come from or have links to for example when Israel was born in 1948, it was invaded by 7 Arab countries , when East Pakistan decided in 1971 it wanted to leave the union with West Pakistan, Islamabad carried a genocide which murdered around 3 million people nobody mentions that, but boy do they point the finger at the Uk for the Bengal famine 28 years previous which when looked at was the result of a rice blight, a terrible cyclone , the lost of Burma (which was Bengals food basket) to the Japanese and hoarding by Indians. But hey lets blame the British. My point, you pointing at 1953 is nothing more than a Non sequitur.

          • X wrote:
            “We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”

            I never said we aren’t, what I did say was pressure groups politicise certain historical events in which to promote their cause whilst overlooking other events so for example whilst the woke generation love to shout out “The British carried out slavery” they not only fail to mention that actually the British lead the way in pushing the first world to abandon slavery by the use of military strong-arming, they omit that actually slavery not only existed before the Uk became a dominant world power all over the world, that it continues across the third world. the East Africa station was based in Zanzibar in which to counter the ME slave trade which is enshrined in a certain holy book. In fact when ISIS took control of parts of Syria and Iraq, Slavery was all the rage. Where is the outrage?

      • “Jingoistic and ignorant comments aside”… huh ! I was going for humour too. I assume you’re referring to the “sneak jihad” comment rather than my earlier post which probably didn’t fit your narrative.

        I guess if you go looking for things to take offence at then you’ll find them.

        • Andy, no offence. My comment was not directed at your post which actually got a ‘like’ from me. As for attempt at humour, there is always a fine line between humour and a dog whistle.

          • No worries Xerxes, you did quote me though so you can understand my confusion.

            As for the humour/dog whistle stuff…. sometimes you need to know people or in this instance maybe hang around a site to get a vibe although I accept that its very easy for people to ‘go a little peculiar’ quite quickly, there’s not many consequences to an online rant as opposed to talking about it face to face.

  7. Before the Revolution of 79 ,we trained their Naval Officers, one of their officers boasted that the Iranian Navy would be unbeatable. My boss replied that we would fight at night in rough weather . Silence prevailed

  10. FONOPs in action. Safe journey, however, given what was said a out the tanker having an Int role, I hope she is monitored crossing the sub-surface comms lines – the Russians would love to tap those lines.

    • Does the Navy still conduct MCM operation Pike which checks around the UK waters going over area’s annually to see whether foreign objects have been laid in sensitive places such as Sub comms cables?

  11. Phil wrote:
    “”Such a shame about the relationship as a shore visit at Culdrose or Yeovilton would have been a wonderful photo opportunity.”2

    The Mullahs in Tehran wouldn’t allow it, not due to any ambivalence towards the Uk, but because within hours the vast majority of the crews of both ships would have run off and claimed asylum. Of late we have seen a huge rise in the number of economic migrants sailing across the Channel in which to live it large over here. A very large percentage are….Iranian

    • Better send a border force cutter out then, actually maybe that one seen off of Sandwich during the Open can do the trick. Just be careful not to be kidnapped and used as bargaining chips. I suggest those Iranian Asylum Seekers had better give crossing the Channel a day or two off too now I think about it… or not depending upon your view of the matter I guess.

      • Kidnapped? Doubt it. They would risk having the SBS and SAS pay them a visit whilst conveniently positioned close to the uk shoreline.

        • I assume they have to launch their ‘mini subs’ over the side in case they fancy damaging a few cables. Though as they call their corvette a stealth destroyer they probably think they could do it in broad daylight and no one will notice.

  12. I’ve been following this story since both ships set sail in May , until Jan this year the IRINS Makran was a huge Oil Tanker named the Persian Gulf which the Iranians spent between 4 to 8 million dollars converting into a military vessel sometime between Sept 2020 and the 8th Dec 2020

    For their money they build a huge landing pad at the front (which appears to have to use the ships cranes to deliver stores onto the pad. There is no hanger for any aircraft. It has been fitted out with 20 mm and twin 23 mm anti-aircraft guns in six raised emplacements, and a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun on each of its bridge wings. It was shown with what appeared to be a land-based anti-ship missile launcher under camouflage netting on its flight deck. It has two surface-search radars and what appears to be an antenna for electronic support measures. It also has two large ISO containers mounted on platforms on the deck that might represent a modular payload that could include containerised missile launchers.

    In May it was reported the former tanker was going to Venezuela in which to drop off 6 small boats (currently on deck) then when it passed the Cape, around the 11th May instead of heading west across the Atlantic  turned north with speculation it was going to enter the Med and head for either Syria or Gaza. However when it passed the starts of Gibraltar it has continued north, now stating it intends to visit Russia.  The Ship is low in the water and so it may hold oil for either Venezuela , Cuba or Syria.

    Whilst the above article refers to the Makran as a forward base ship in some way equivalent to the U.S. Navy’s Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) ships. There is a huge different between the two . The 2 two US ships were built from the keel up based on the Alaska-class oil tanker and have had extensive reworking in which to make them fit for purpose.(Just google USS Hershel “Woody” Williams to see the visual difference) which including having open sides in which to allow the easier stowage and transfer of smalls boats to water. The Iranian craft has to use the main ships crane. The US ships have a hanger, the Iranian ones don’t. I’m not saying the Iran ship can’t carry out the same task, But I feel that its main task is to beat oil embargos (And even weapon smuggling) than being a FBS. On that note the Iranians also unveiled another so called base ship the Shahid Roudaki last November which in its former life was a RORO ferry.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANG9WglHvhU

    If the ships work, then the Mullahs will be happy, but I’m pretty sure the matlows on here will be able to bring more to the table than I a former pongo.

    • The accompanying warship to the above is the IRINS Sahand a Moudge-class frigate (4 built so far) which are based on the Alvand Class (Vosper Mk 5) light patrol frigates. Which the Uk sold Iran at the back end of the 1960s. In typical Iranian mullah bluster  the mullahs claim that the class is a stealth war ship (Mrs Miggins our cat in the ID picture is much more stealthier)   The ship is named after the one the Yanks sank in 1988. Its sister ship the IRIS Damavand which joined the Iranian navy in 2015 sank in 2018 when it hit the breakwater on trying to enter port
      https://twitter.com/JosephHDempsey/status/951155963557482496?s=20

      • You are right, I have never noticed the cat before in your ID pic. Indeed even after reading the above I had to check it 3 times before I realised it wasn’t Batman.

    • yes I was really impressed for a moment when they claimed they had built this ship inside 6 months or so ‘shocking Western experts’. Then I discovered the truth about a lump of iron being stuck on the deck and became somewhat less impressed.

    • What are “you” waiting for? Mmmmmmm I see a none UK commentator, who may want others to think otherwise.

      • Uh? i see you are also very upset with criticism of embarrasing T45 destroyers…
        But where i implied i was a UK commentator? and i still make English language mistakes often.
        That said i probably know more about RN WW2 history than you…

        • Continues negative comments, nothing constructive or debatable, typical troll behaviour. Glad you are so smart about RN history, do try to show it as you hide it very well.

  14. Yes that scheme is fantastic isn’t it… probably not great for the Channel on a normal day mind, so this might give them a false sense of security thinking this weather is typical up hear. Could have been interesting had it been foggy probably would have hit a P&O ferry despite their claimed state of the art radar.

  15. We do need to shadow and watch these vessels. That tanjer is a bloody big ship and could be holding a whole load of nasty surprises.
    A type 23 would suffice.

      • A Butlins Pedalo launched from Bognor Beach has probably a better radar cross-section for stealthy approaches very hard to track carbon composites radar absorbent .But seriously could the fwd hold of the Makran be containing the Revolutionary guards favourite Calm water vessel the fast attack Boghammer speedboat used extensively during the Iran/Iraq war mainly for suicide attacks nasty piece of equipment in dedicated believer’s

  17. I’m not sure what the fuss is they are passing through legally like any navy . Calm down people. Making silly jokes against the Iranian navy may be easy, but Iran can hit any UK base in the middle East with ease ! So don’t underestimate the Ayotollahs in Tehran who hit US bases in Iraq as retaliation, the US shied away from hitting back despite macho Trump in charge and turn to full scale war. Iran is not some push over. They are showing flag not to intimidate the Royal navy but rather to remind Britain they are relevant elsewhere with their close relationship with Russia and China

    • The best approach for their legal maritime transit through the Channel and correct transit corridor through the Dover straits is to applaud them for their seamanship abilities if they make it there’s a he’ll of a lot cross channel traffic

    • Yes, and most of them missed and hit desert!

      Other than that agree, let them get on with it they’re only off to St P for a jolly.

  18. Optimists in Wikipedia claims it’s 2000 to 2500 tonnes.

    Elsewhere it’s said to be 1300.

    In reading, it had been suggested that they were going to Venezuela to drop off weapons. But the sister ship (?) Kharg, which was due to go to Russia, mysteriously caught fire and sank. So possibly they have been diverted.
    They have been in transit via the Cape of Good Hope, not the Med.

  19. to be honest with you, i would not even send the royal navy out to observe them,
    im sure we can observe from shore if required, after all, do they not expect us to follow them just to show back home how dangerous they are, and the royal navy has to be wary of them,,, just by not turning up at all may well confuse them and they may well be put on edge,
    just a thought, chaps, just a thought.lol

  20. We should behave the same way as they behave towards our ships when transiting the Gulf. Send lots of small fast craft to harass them.

  21. Pity we don’t have those pleasure boats that once took people for a trip around the bay, why? The MOD could say look here is a back hander, rustle up a few locals for trip to see this Iran warship, if the MOD paid about ten or fifteen pleasure craft, it would remind the crew , of what it is like for our ships to have their speedboats flying around ours, plus get a few girls to be dolly birds giving Iran Jack flashes of what your missing, as we used to get. Maybe get a old Jack Vet to do a moonie at them.

  22. 21.5 metres draft, it best watch where it sails through the Dover Straight, and avoid cutting corners, otherwise we’d have to rescue them.

  23. delivering Rubber dinghies and paddles to French Beaches, considering there moving international waters. bit of a stretch

  24. Didn’t we convert container ships during the Falklands War like the Makran. The name Atlantic Conveyor strikes a cord.

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