Navy: Production of Jask Cruise Missile Begins

Date: 30 November 2019 - 21:33

News ID: ۷۳۳۵۰

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran’s Navy on Saturday announced the mass production of the indigenously-designed and submarine-launched "Jask” cruise missile as it unveiled a handful of other military projects and technological achievements.
Navy chief Rear Admiral Hussein Khanzadi announced the mass production of the Jask missile while visiting a Navy exhibition showcasing a number of the force’s recent achievements.
Khanzadi said all of the force’s submarines will be equipped with the weapon and that the missile’s current range will be improved "substantially” in the future.
The commander added that the weapon, developed as part of the "Jask-2 project", will allow the Navy to hit targets across long ranges.
The missile "will surely be a serious surprise for the enemy,” he said.
Another project dubbed "Jask-3” is also under development, Khanzadi said. The project will allow a wider variety of missile capabilities to be used in submarines, he added.
Also on Saturday, five other military projects and achievements, comprising the sea-launched "Pelikan” drone, the "Sadaf-2” naval mine, the "Soren” positioning system, the "Balaban” guided bomb and the "Loqman” training vessel, were also unveiled.
Among the unveiled projects, the Soren positioning system will allow Iranian submarines to obtain tracking information without using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, while operating discreetly underwater.
The Pelikan drone also incorporates four vertical-flight motors in order to allow the drone to take off and vertically on military vessels in order to perform maritime patrol operations from ships.
Speaking during the event, Khanzadi said a joint naval exercise between Iran, Russia and China will be held in the Indian Ocean next month.
He added that preparatory planning and agreements had been made in meetings last month between military representatives of the three countries.
"The objective of such an exercise is obtaining collective security and assisting in securing the northern region of the Indian Ocean, which is today witness to certain incidents such as maritime piracy,” he said.
The commander also added that his force faced "no limits” in sailing in international waters across the world, adding that the Iranian Navy was ready to visit "any port” which it is invited to, "be it in the Gulf of Mexico or (Gulf of) Finland” northwest of Russia.
On Friday, Khanzadi said a new cutting-edge destroyer dubbed Dena will join the Iranian military in February.
In his speech, dedicated to Iran's Navy Day, Khanzadi said that with the construction of rocket launcher warships and the construction of Mowj-class destroyers, the Islamic Republic "has entered the field of naval combat".
Speaking separately on Saturday, Rear Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, Iranian Army’s deputy commander, said that Iran will respond to elements behind terrorist attacks which have targeted its tankers in the Red Sea in the past months "in an appropriate time and location”.
Mousavi added that Iran has documents indicating which elements have been behind the attacks, adding that Tehran will surely pursue the case through international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Maritime Organization.
The remarks come as a series of attacks have targeted Iranian tankers in the past months.
Iran’s Happiness-1 faced "engine failure” off Jeddah on April 30 and was later transferred to the Saudi port city for maintenance.
The Saudis initially refused to let the vessel go, demanding some $10 million in maintenance fees before releasing it on July 20.
Iranian officials also said in August that another oil tanker, the Helm, faced a technical failure due to sabotage while passing through the Red Sea.
Last month, Iran’s SABITI tanker was also by two separate explosions near the Saudi port city of Jeddah.  The blasts caused an oil spill that was stopped shortly after.
Whereas Persian Gulf states spend lavishly on high-end, off-the-shelf, U.S.-built platforms, decades of sanctions and post-revolutionary strategic decisions to be militarily self-sufficient have led the Islamic Republic to focus more on its own indigenous industries.
The Islamic Republic is modernizing its military despite restrictions imposed on arms sales to the country by the UN and the EU between 2007 and 2010. The UN arms embargo is about to be lifted in October 2020, while the European sanctions expire in October 2023.