Overseas and Underwater

Iran plans to deploy several units of its subsurface vessels in the high seas and international waters as part of its strategy to defend the country’s interests abroad, Commander of the Iranian Army Major General Ataollah Salehi has announced.

“With the support of God Almighty, we will witness the dispatch of the Navy’s subsurface vessels to free waters and the high seas in the near future,” Salehi said.

“The only force which can act as a strategic force is the Navy,” he reiterated, and added, “This force can even dispatch warships to the high seas and fulfill missions in there.”

Elsewhere, Salehi pointed to the Navy’s self-sufficiency and initiatives in producing various kinds of warfare equipment, and said, “Today the Navy’s capabilities have expanded to such a level that it will renew and indigenize more than two-third of its equipment by the next decade.”

The Iranian military commanders have always announced that the Navy’s presence in the high seas and international waters is part of Tehran’s strategy for displaying its might and power to the world.

A senior commander of the Iranian Navy announced last month that his forces are ready to join collective efforts to maintain and boost security in the region.

Commander of Iran’s Navy Read Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced that the Iranian navy forces are well prepared to conduct joint military drills with the neighboring and regional countries to maintain security in the Middle-East.

Also, the Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in high seas, including the Gulf of Aden, since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.

The Gulf of Aden – which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea – is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.

In related remarks in October, Sayyari pointed out that Iran’s naval deployment in the Gulf of Aden is not just aimed at fighting sea piracy, and explained that the Iranian Navy has deployed its ships and vessels in that part of the world in a bid to maintain readiness to defend the country’s interests against all potential threats.

Sayyari also announced that Iran plans to deploy its first home-made destroyer, ‘Jamaran’, in the high seas and international waters.

“Jamaran destroyer will be deployed in an area 10 degrees north of international waters in the near future,” Sayyari told FNA oat the time.

Jamaran was first launched in a ceremony in late February attended by senior Navy commanders and Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

The Mowdge Class vessel has a displacement of around 14,000 tons and is equipped with modern radars and electronic warfare capabilities and is armed with a variety of anti-ship, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles.