# Iran launches domestically-made destroyer



## Colin Parkinson (2 Dec 2018)

Only 6 years, perhaps we can learn from them.....

At 1300tons more like a Corvette

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2018/12/01/State-media-Iran-launches-domestically-made-destroyer.html

The Sahand has a helicopter landing pad, is 96 meters (105 yards) long and can cruise at 25 knots. It is equipped with surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles as well as anti-aircraft batteries and sophisticated radar and radar evading capabilities, the report said.


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## brihard (2 Dec 2018)

She’ll look lovely on the bottom of the Gulf one day.

For the uninitiated- can I safely guess that the value of a ship like this in the Gulf littoral is less about confronting military rivals and more about pressuring tanker traffic in the Hormuz, and perhaps supporting small boat ops?


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## Navy_Pete (2 Dec 2018)

Brihard said:
			
		

> She’ll look lovely on the bottom of the Gulf one day.
> 
> For the uninitiated- can I safely guess that the value of a ship like this in the Gulf littoral is less about confronting military rivals and more about pressuring tanker traffic in the Hormuz, and perhaps supporting small boat ops?



They can be used as swarms to get close enough to launch a whack of missiles to overwhelm even the most sophisticated ships with the number of simultaneous targets. Having a mobile helo platform is also helpful for rapid deployment, so probably pretty useful little ships. Generally speaking smaller ships are harder to detect, so there is that advantage as well.  

Overall not good news for anyone operating in the gulf, and if they can crank these out themselves they could have a fleet of smaller simple ships that could be effective at controlling an area, and be a legitimate threat to even the most modern warship.


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## Retired AF Guy (2 Dec 2018)

While the article above doesn't mention it, the Sahand is actually the third in the Mowj (Wave) class of destroyers. And while it states the Sahand has radar-evading capabilities, looking at  photos of the ship, it doesn't look very stealthy to me; mind you I'm not an expert so I could be wrong.  Specifications can be found here. More information below courtesy of Global Security.



> 74 Sahand - Mowj Class
> 
> Iran's Navy launched the indigenous Sahand destroyer in the southern port of Bandar Abbas on September 8, 2012 alongside the overhauled "super-heavy" Tareq 901 submarine.
> 
> ...


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