Navy Unveils Plans to Build First Heavy Destroyer

Date: 24 November 2019 - 21:39

News ID: ۷۳۰۹۳

TEHRAN (Dispatches – Iran’s navy commander on Sunday announced plans for the production of a new heavy destroyer weighing more than 5,000 tonnes.
In an interview with Tasnim, Navy commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said the "Negin” (gemstone) project will build the country’s first indigenous heavy destroyer.
The weight of the destroyer will be between 5,000 tonnes and 7,000 tonnes, he said, adding the warship will be used in long-haul naval missions.
The heaviest destroyers currently in service in the Iranian navy’s fleet are of the Mowj-class which weigh around 1,300 tonnes.
In December 2018, the homegrown Sahand destroyer and Qadeer submarine joined the navy’s fleet.
Sahand weighs 1,300 tonnes, is 96 meters in length, and can cruise at a speed of 25 knots. The destroyer is also equipped with various surface, subsurface and aerial weapons, and carries out radar jamming and deception operations.
Sahand is a stealth destroyer furnished with anti-submarine systems, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, point-defense weapon system, and anti-aircraft guns.
In a meeting with navy commanders last year, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei praised "great and fabulous” advances that Iranian military forces, the navy in particular, have made since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The navy’s success in bringing into service homebuilt vessels such as the Sahand destroyer or Fateh and Qadeer submarines heralds a new era for Iran’s ship building industry, the Leader said.