Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy has taken delivery of the Shahid Soleimani (lit. "Martyr Soleimani"), the lead ship of a new generation of catamaran-style missile corvettes.
The hull of the 64-meter-long warship, built from the ground up by local engineers and shipbuilders, is designed to have a low radar cross section.
The vessel has a displacement of 1,000 tons, and is stuffed with electronic warfare equipment vertical launch system (VLS) missile launchers carrying between eight and sixteen air defense missiles, as well as six onboard anti-ship cruise missiles with a range of up to 300 km. The Shahid Soleimani is also equipped with a domestically-designed onboard battle management system, advanced radar, sonar and electronic countermeasures. Other features include a 30-mm machinegun and four 20 mm machineguns for peripheral defense, chafe and flare launchers, and six vertically launched ground attack cruise missiles with a range of up to 700 km.
The combat patrol vessel is capable of carrying a sole Bell-412 helicopter and/or drones, as well as speedboats, which are launched from its aft.
Speaking at the warship’s unveiling ceremony on Monday, Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri said that the ship is the first Iranian military vessel with onboard VLS, and that its four powerful engines will enable it to carry out long-range naval missions without coastal logistical support.
Qasem Soleimani (1957-2020) was the long-time commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, an elite fighting formation responsible for Iran’s covert extraterritorial operations. Before his assassination in a US airstrike in January 2020, Soleimani commanded Quds and advised Iran’s allies in conflicts against a wide range of jihadist forces including Daesh (ISIS)* and al-Qaeda* in Iraq and Syria, the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Israel during the 2006 Lebanon War.
* Terrorist groups outlawed in Russia and many other countries.