''Shahid Soleimani'' (

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: شهید سلیمانی) is the lead ship of an Iranian class of missile corvettes with the same name. It was built by the Shahid Mahallati Shipyard and is operated by the

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy The Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ( fa, نیروی دریایی سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, niru-ye daryâyi-e sepâh-e pâsdârân-e enghelâb-e eslâmi; officially abbreviated NEDSA ( fa, ندسا), als ...

of Iran.

Design

Hull

The ship has a

catamaran A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

(twin hull) design with sharp angles to give it a more stealthy design. Its design has been compared to the Chinese

Type 22 missile boat The Type 22 ( NATO designation: ''Houbei'' class) missile boat is a ship class in the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. The first boat was launched in April 2004 by the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard at Shanghai. The boats incorporate stealth fea ...

and the Taiwanese ''Tuo Chiang'' class. According to Iranian officials the ship's hull is made of aluminium instead of steel which decreases the weight and is a new innovation in the Iranian shipbuilding industry.

Armament

This warship is equipped with six anti-ship cruise missiles including four long-range ones (likely Noor or

Ghadir Ghadir or Ghadeer ( ar, غدير , link=no) means ''hollow'' or ''pond'' in Arabic. It may refer to: Places * Ghadir, a village in Keserwan District, Lebanon * Ghadir-e Sab, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran * Ghadir Kuhi, a village in Hor ...

) and two short-range anti-ship missiles (likely

Nasir Nasir ( ar, ناصر, translit=Nāṣir) is a masculine given name, commonly found in Arabic which can mean "helper" or "one who gives victory" (grammatically the Stem I masculine singular active participle of consonantal verb root ''n-ṣ-r''). ...

) in an order of two long-range and one short-range box launchers on each side behind the

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

. It is also the first Iranian warship to be equipped with VLS. Its VLS includes 6 bigger cells for

surface-to-surface A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) or ground-to-ground missile (GGM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea and strike targets on land or at sea. They may be fired from hand-held or vehicle mounted devices, from fixed ins ...

cruise missiles and 16 smaller ones for

surface-to-air A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

missiles all of which are located behind the command bridge. The warship ''Shahid Soleimani'' is also equipped with four 20 mm

gatling gun The Gatling gun is a rapid-firing multiple-barrel firearm invented in 1861 by Richard Jordan Gatling. It is an early machine gun and a forerunner of the modern electric motor-driven rotary cannon. The Gatling gun's operation centered on a cyc ...

s (likely Asef), one 30 mm auto-canon and two chaff dispensers.

Radars and electronics

Intelligence and reconnaissance monitoring, surface and subsurface and air traffic monitoring are among the duties of this vessel and it is equipped with Iran's most advanced electronics and electronic warfare systems.

Propulsion

''Shahid Soleimani'' is powered by four indigenous

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s which gives it a top speed of and a range of .

Other equipment

The warship also has a helipad and a crane under it which is used to launch and retrieve fast attack boats. The ship can carry three fast attack boats and has the ability to retrieve and rearm them.

History

After the end of construction at the Shahid Mahallati Shipyard on 14 June 2022, it underwent

sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s but at that time instead of four 20 mm gatling guns, it was equipped with four 12.7 mm

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

s which were later replaced. On 5 September 2022, ''Shahid Soleimani'' was commissioned into IRGC's navy branch in a commissioning ceremony.

References

{{Reflist Ships of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ships built in Bushehr