Iran is seeking to put more cruise missiles on its Sabalan frigate, an aging ship that dates from the 1960s. The Sabalan is one of three Alvand-class frigates that Iran owns, built in the UK for Iran’s regime before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In an “exclusive” statement to Iran’s Tasnim News, the Iranian navy claims to outfit the frigate with more firepower, increasing to 12 cruise missiles installed on it.
“In a conversation with Tasnim’s defense reporter, Admiral Shahram Irani, commander of the Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, announced the increase in the Sabalan destroyer’s sea cruise missiles,” the report reads.
Iran’s navy is relatively small, making this announcement quite significant. It also doesn’t have very many large surface ships capable of performing blue-water naval operations far from base. It instead relies on its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy to harass ships and conduct operations in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
Now, Iran wants to increase the range and power of its navy – according to this report – by sending ships to Russia, and also on a circumnavigation of the globe recently to show off its power.
According to the report, the Sabalan played a key role in these recent long-range operations, traveling some 13,000 km. in 40 days, to Asia through the Straits of Malacca and also to the South China Sea. It also stopped in Sri Lanka and operated in the Bay of Bengal.
An Iranian ship's encounter with US vessel
In the interview, the naval officer described an encounter with a US ship in the Pacific Ocean. The American ship, he says, “seeing this way of our commander’s response, changed its position and said in a calmer tone: ‘We had no bad intentions and we want to know where your destination is,' this time our commander answered: ‘We are busy sailing.’”
Iran says it has conducted other missions in recent years, including in the Caspian Sea. It has continued to add cruise missiles to its various ships. “In November of the same year, the Iranian admiral announced the upgrade of the anti-ship missiles of the army’s destroyers to 8 missiles [on the ship] and stated that this action was carried out on the Sabalan destroyer.”
Iran says that special systems have been built for ground cruise missiles that need to identify ground features, determine altitude, and navigate, which have been discussed in Tasnim’s previous reports.
“Currently, the naval forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are equipped with various types of anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of 10 km. to 1000 km., which have been designed and produced by the defense ministry and Armed Forces Support, and are capable of targeting various naval targets,” the report noted.