Iran’s Damavand-2 Frigate Undergoing Sea Trials
The first official video of the Damavand-2 frigate, which left the Bandar Anzeli port for its first sea voyage experience in recent weeks, has been released by Iranian media. The ship was seen in the video going through sea trials in the Caspian Sea, and it was stated that the vessel will join the Northern Fleet of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy in the near future.
“It took 12 years to build the first Jamaran-class destroyer,” Manouchehr Alipour, the Iranian defense minister’s marine industries adviser and vice-president of the Marine Industries Organization (MIO), said in a statement on the subject. “The Damavand-1 was built in 8 years and Dena was delivered to the Navy after 6 years. We hope to deliver the Damavand-2 [to the Navy] in a much shorter time. We manufactured Damavand’s initial hull in 4 years, but the process [to build] the Damavand-2 took [only] 11 months,” Alipour said, citing the reduction in time required to build destroyers as a result of Iranian experts gaining expertise in designing and manufacturing destroyers.
Damavand-2 is the most advanced version of the Moudge or Mowj Class domestic corvettes of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy. Damavand-2 was rebuilt at the Bandar Anzeli shipyard in collaboration with the Defense Industries Organization’s (DIO) Marine Industries Group and Iranian Navy Factories to replace the Iranian warship Damavand, which sank in the Caspian Sea on January 10, 2018, due to a navigational error. The new frigate, named after Mount Damavand, an important mountain in Persian mythology, has a length of 100 meters, a width of 11.1 meters and a draft of 3.25 meters, like other ships in its class. The ship, which weighs more than 1,300 tons, has a large flight deck at the stern to accommodate a Bell 214 helicopter and crew space for 130 people.
There is currently little information available about the ship’s existing sensors and weapon systems. However, Iranian Navy Commander Commodore Shahram claims that Damavand-2 is outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment in all areas, including the most advanced reconnaissance and combat systems. The Navy commander also stated that all other destroyers’ equipment will be updated over time, and a hypersonic missile will be fitted on the Damavand-2 in the near future. Despite all these claims, among the systems detected from the footage published by the Iranian media, it is seen that the ship has so far been equipped with a 76mm gun, Eagle Eye AESA radar and possibly Noor or Qader anti-ship cruise missiles.