"The new Damavand destroyer" Topic

"According to the Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, Islamic Republic of Iran's Navy will take delivery of the domestically manufactured Damavand destroyer in a near future. The advanced and well-equipped warship, which is a destroyer of the Jamaran class, was currently undergoing final tests.

"Destroyer Damavand will join the Islamic Republic of Iran's Navy in the near future", Habibollah Sayyari said on Tuesday. Elsewhere, he referred to the Iranian Navy's deployment in the international waters, and said, "Iran's 31st fleet of warships is sailing towards the region of its mission to replace the 30th fleet."…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Call me crazy, but that looks more like a corvette or heavy offshore patrol craft than a destroyer.

Yeah, I'm not seeing any spaces for VLS missiles, nor am I seeing anything bigger than a 76mm gun. No external torpedo tubes, either.

So what's this thing supposed to be?
Can't be AA, doesn't have the radars for it.

Might be ASW, but I don't see the torpedo tubes, and there's no hangar, either, so running an ASW helo is problematic. Unless someone has resurrected the old Q-50 Drone Antisubmarine Helicopters?

Can't be Anti-surface Warfare, no missiles and only the one gun.

Can't really be Naval Gunfire Support, doesn't have the massive defenses you'd need to get within 76mm range of shore (and I'd want bigger guns than a 76mm for NGFS, anyway!)

So what is it, a well-armed Coast Guard cutter?

The definition for class sizes have changed over the years. WWII destroyers started around 800 tons and peaked to 1,200. The USN shattered the ceiling as to what constitutes a destroyer with the Spruance at 8,000 tons, because the Navy wanted a new cruiser class, but congress would only allow a new class of destroyers. Now the definition has been pushed to 15,000 for the Zumwalt.

But for 1,500 tons, this is a nice little package. 4 small SSM's, and 4 SAM's. The ASW torpedoes are there somewhere. A serious threat to anyone's navy, no. But for a totally home built package, it's a nice piece.

Iranians tend to over exaggerate everything.

This class of ships is also known as Moudge class and they're basically a reverse engineered Alvand-class light frigate. The Alvands (or Saams as they were initially known as) were British designed and built.

The 4 Alvands were delivered to the Shah's navy in the 1970s. One was sunk by US Navy in a battle in 1988.

The Moudge/Jamaran class mates the British designed ship with systems and weapons of Iranian and older Chinese origin.

I suspect that in a conflict even with neighbouring Arab states or the Russians in the Caspian, these ships would be sitting ducks against the more advanced air forces and navies of the region.