IRGC's Navy receives flurry of homegrown submarines bolstering arsenal

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
28 Aug 2023 19:02

Iran's IRGC Navy receives new Ghadir and Fateh class submarines featuring advanced weaponry and stealth capabilities.

Iran's Navy members stand on top of a Ghadir-942 midget submarine at the Bandar Abbas port, Iran, on November 29, 2018. (AP)

New generations of the Ghadir and Fateh class submarines were transferred to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy on Monday, according to the Iranian Tasnim News Agency.

The updated version of the Fateh submarine is equipped with a guided missile system and an advanced sonic radar system, allowing it to identify and engage enemy vessels. The manned naval vehicle holds several weapons, including torpedoes and naval mines, and can dive to a maximum depth of 200 meters for approximately five weeks while weighing around 600 tons.

In comparison, the new class of Ghadir submarines, which was first unveiled in 2018, are designed for shallow water cruising and have been famed for their relatively small size, making them hard to identify by enemy detection systems. The vessels could reportedly be equipped with cruise missiles, torpedoes, and naval mines, which makes them the ideal weapon to carry out ambushes on larger enemy vessels.

The two submarine types are among several other domestically built advanced submarines that Iranian forces hold, including the Qaem, Nahang, Tareq, and Sina vessels.

IRGC props up naval capabilities in the face of the US

The news comes after the IRGC's Navy received a locally developed and produced Qadir missile system and a Fath missile system on August 3.

The commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami and Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, the IRGC Navy's commander, as well as a group of other IRGC commanders commemorated the occasion.

The missiles, which are equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities, were unveiled and delivered to the IRGC, further bolstering the force's naval presence in the Gulf.

The Qadir missile is a medium-range anti-ship cruise missile with high destructive capabilities against naval targets. The new version received an upgrade allowing the missile to travel up to 400km while the older version reportedly traveled to 300km. The weapon was described as Iran's most precise and destructive naval weapon, launched from sea, land, and air, with a reported warhead of 200kg.

While previously known as BM-120 due to its 120km range, the new upgraded version, Fath 360, unveiled during the drills, can now travel up to 300km. The missile is satellite-guided, capable of reaching speeds of up to 4 Mach, and can carry a 150kg warhead, according to the listed specifications of the older model.

These advances in the IRGC's naval arsenal come at a crucial time as the Pentagon increases its presence in the Gulf under the pretext of maintaining and securing international maritime trade routes.