Iran has inaugurated its first drone-carrier warship, saying the vessel is capable of operating in oceans far from its mainland, the official IRNA news agency reported. The report said the vessel, manned by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s navy, can carry several squadrons of drones as well as helicopters and cruise missiles. Named Shahid Bagheri, it’s capable of launching cruise missiles.
With a 180-meter-long runway for drones, the vessel can travel up to 22,000 nautical miles without needing to refuel in ports. It was converted from a commercial ship and would increase Iran’s power of deterrence.
Footage broadcast by state TV on the inauguration showed at least four helicopters and three drones on the warship’s runway.
Chief of the Guard, General Hossein Salami, said at the ceremony that the warship can travel “independently” in seas for up to one year. Chief of the Guard’s navy Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri said it took more than two years to build the warship from the commercial vessel.
Officially touted as a sea base-like ship, Shahid Bagheri has now been shown launching a small missile boat and is armed itself with cruise missiles along with weapons for self-defense.
60% scaled version of Qaher-313 dubbed JAS-313,
The imagery from today’s ceremony includes footage showing a modified Ababil-3 drone with an arresting hook, which does not appear to retract or otherwise be capable of being stowed during flight, launching from the Shahid Bagheri‘s 590-foot (180-meter) flight deck. What is presumably the same drone is seen in another clip recovering on the deck by catching an arresting wire with its hook. The Ababil-3 also has two small turbojet engines installed, one under each wing, which could provide valuable additional performance for operations from a short flight deck without the aid of a catapult.
Iranian JAS-313 drones onboard the IRGCN drone carrier Shahid Bahman Bagheri.
Looks like they ran out of the exhaust covers and covered the left one’s exhaust with glue tape and plastic cover.
How permanent the ‘carrier’ modifications to the Ababil-3 might actually be and whether a more refined design is in the works are unknown. At its core, the Ababil-3 is otherwise a well-established Iranian design in active service in Iran, as well as other operators in the Middle East, including Iranian-backed proxies in the Middle East. The drone is capable of performing surveillance and reconnaissance missions and employing small precision munitions.
Video clips show small remote control plane-esque ‘drones,’ styled on Iran’s Qaher 313 aircraft taking off and landing on Shahid Bagheri‘s deck, as well. Larger drones, or mock-ups thereof, with a design in line with the Qaher 313 are also seen on the deck. There are unconfirmed reports that the larger and smaller types are 20 and 60 percent of the size of the original Qaher 313, respectively. Both are seen marked JAS-313 and one of them is seen in a clip being lifted up to the flight deck on an elevator. What actual capabilities they might have are unknown.
The Qaher 313, also known as the Q-313 and F-313, which first appeared publicly in 2013, is itself a dubious and widely ridiculed design that has never flown. Iranian media has shown imagery in the past of a remote control plane-like subscale model of the design, as seen in the video below. In 2023, media outlets in Iran reported that an uncrewed variant or derivative was in development. Subsequent reports claimed that a Qaher 313-derived drone had made its maiden flight last year.
Something like microjet engines (probably for test) are installed under the Ababil-3 drone wing pylons onboard the IRGCN drone carrier Shahid Bahman Bagheri
Other types of drones are also seen on Shahid Bagheri‘s deck in the imagery from today’s ceremony, such as the Mohajer-6, another popular Iranian design in service in Iran and many other places globally, including now with the Russian armed forces. American-designed Bell Model 206 and Model 212 helicopters, as well as Russian-made Mi-17 Hips, are seen operating from the ship’s flight deck. Despite the aforementioned clip of the aircraft elevator, no views have yet emerged of any internal aircraft hangars.
Beyond its aviation-related capabilities, the new imagery of Shahid Bagheri highlights the ability to launch and recover small boats using davits behind large doors on either side of the hull, as seen below. Using small boats armed with missiles and other weapons in swarms has long been a signature tactic of the IRGC’s naval arm. There are claims that the ship can be used to launch uncrewed surface vessels (USV) and underwater vehicles (UUV).
Sources: AP; The War Zone;