Iran to Send Naval Fleet to Russia’s St. Petersburg

In an interview with Tasnim, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said an Iranian naval fleet will be dispatched to St. Petersburg in the near future on the occasion of Russia’s Navy Day.

He said the Iranian fleet will travel more than 12,000 nautical miles to reach the Russian port and set a new record by cruising in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Suez Canal, Strait of Gibraltar, Atlantic Ocean, Strait of Dover, and Gulf of Finland.

The commander further pointed to plans to manufacture new military vessels and submarines, saying the construction of Fateh-2 and Fateh-3 submarines are in rapid progress.

He also noted that the 4th generation of the Fateh-class submarine will be equipped with much more advanced technologies than the previous models.

Referring to a project to modify and upgrade the homegrown destroyer “Damavand”, Rear Admiral Khanzadi said the new model will have two engine rooms and four engines, four-dimensional static phased array radars, as well as a vertical launching system for firing missiles.

He said the new launching system will enable Damavand to carry more missiles stored below its deck and hit hostile missile launchers or intercept cruise projectiles with mid-range missiles.

The commander also unveiled plans for the production of a homegrown vertically-launched drone, saying the pilotless aircraft can take off from warships automatically and carry out patrol missions.

The Navy chief further noted that his forces were manufacturing a new naval hovercraft as part of a project entitled ‘Piroozan’.

The Iranian hovercraft will be equipped with two propellers and have a smaller radar cross-section and a lower height than the current models, but with the same weight and capacity, he said.

The new hovercraft is going to be furnished with folding missile launchers, sonar systems and torpedoes, the commander added.

Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made great headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient in the arms sphere.

In a meeting with Navy commanders in November 2018, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei praised as “great and fabulous” the advances that Iranian military forces, the Navy in particular, have made since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, saying the Navy’s success in bringing into service homegrown vessels such as the Sahand destroyer or Fateh and Qadir submarines heralds more progress day after day.