Iran navy launches stealth warship in the
Gulf
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[December 01, 2018]
DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's navy on
Saturday launched a domestically made destroyer, which state media said
has radar-evading stealth properties, as tensions rise with arch-enemy,
the United States.
In a ceremony carried live on state television, the Sahand destroyer --
which can sustain voyages lasting five months without resupply -- joined
Iran's regular navy at a base in Bandar Abbas on the Gulf.
The Sahand has a flight deck for helicopters, torpedo launchers,
anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air
missiles and electronic warfare capabilities, state television reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of an international agreement on
Iran's nuclear program in May and reimposed sanctions on Tehran. He said
the deal was flawed because it did not include curbs on Iran's
development of ballistic missiles or its support for proxies in Syria,
Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.
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The United States has said its goal is to reduce Iran's oil exports to
zero. Senior Iranian officials have said that if Iran is not allowed to
export then no other countries will be allowed to export oil through the
Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.
"This vessel is the result of daring and creative design relying on the
local technical knowledge of the Iranian Navy... and has been built with
stealth capabilities," Rear-Admiral Alireza Sheikhi, head of the navy
shipyards that built the destroyer, told the state news agency IRNA.
Iran launched its first locally made destroyer in 2010 as part of a
program to revamp its navy equipment which dates from before the 1979
Islamic revolution and is mostly U.S.-made.
Iran has developed a large domestic arms industry in the face of
international sanctions and embargoes that have barred it from importing
many weapons.
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Separately, a naval commander said Sahand may be among warships that
Iran plans to send on a mission to Venezuela soon.
"Among our plans in the near future is to send two or three vessels
with special helicopters to Venezuela in South America on a mission
that could last five months," Iran's deputy navy commander,
Rear-Admiral Touraj Hassani Moqaddam, told the semi-official news
agency Mehr.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week Iran should
increase its military capability and readiness to ward off enemies,
in a meeting with Iranian navy commanders.
Iran's navy has extended its reach in recent years, launching
vessels in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian
ships from Somali pirates operating in the area.
The chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces said in 2016 that
Iran may seek to set up naval bases in Yemen or Syria in the future,
raising the prospect of distant footholds perhaps being more
valuable militarily to Tehran than nuclear technology.
(Reporting by Dubai newsroom, editing by Louise Heavens)
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