Iran is building a Surveillance Warship ‘Shiraz‘ which is scheduled to join the Iranian Navy by March 2021. Speaking to the press, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said that the cruiser is now being equipped with smart systems. As per the Rear Admiral, the ship has the necessary capabilities in the field of radar detection, telecommunications, sonar and management of various emissions in electromagnetic warfare. “Moreover, the Warship is equipped with other capabilities such as frequency band identification, identifying various parameters of radar and radio waves as well as identifying enemy’s telecommunication systems which are considered an important issue in the field of information warfare,” he said.
Rear Admiral Hossein also mentioned that the design for the 3000-ton trimaran destroyer ‘Safineh’ has been finalized and its manufacturing process will start effectively next year. The design of Safineh guided-missile destroyer was first released by the Iranian News Agency FARS in December 2018.
Earlier in April 2020, the Head of the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Marine Industries Organization, Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari had spoken to Iranian News Agency Mehr News about the construction of a Heavy Destroyer weighing nearly 6,000 tons. He had also claimed that Iran had the know-how to equip the submarines with nuclear propulsion but is not done due to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iranian Navy had also requested for 2000 ton Trimaran destroyer as per Rear Admiral Amir. He was possibly referring to the 3000-ton destroyer as mentioned by Rear Admiral Hossein. Other projects he mentioned were an all-composite 30 meters long mine-hunting vessel, Vertical Launching System (VLS) for Dena destroyers and Victory Hovercraft with surface-to-surface missile weapons & anti-submarine torpedos.