 foxbat  | 14 Feb 2025 3:55 a.m. PST |
Meet IRIS Shahid Bagheri, Iran's "revolutionnary" drone carrier. The vessel is able to operate choppers, jet drones from its 180 runway, and naval drones that can be lowered from its sides. link Its also armed with anti 8 × Kowsar-222 SAMs & 8 × Noor or Qader anti-ship missiles. With a 22 000 nm range, it is theiretically capable of sailing all over the globe. Now, my 2 cts : the ship looks extremely vulnerable, and its AA defences seem very low in the face of modern anti ship missiles… Not sure about Iran's ASW capabilities too. IMO, a paper tiger, but a complication nonetheless for opposing navies who will have to divert ressources to take care of it. |
| foxbat | 14 Feb 2025 3:56 a.m. PST |
Meet IRIS Shahid Bagheri, Iran's "revolutionnary" drone carrier. The vessel is able to operate choppers, jet drones from its 180 runway, and naval drones that can be lowered from its sides. link Its also armed with anti 8 × Kowsar-222 SAMs & 8 × Noor or Qader anti-ship missiles. With a 22 000 nm range, it is theiretically capable of sailing all over the globe. Now, my 2 cts : the ship looks extremely vulnerable, and its AA defences seem very low in the face of modern anti ship missiles… Not sure about Iran's ASW capabilities too. IMO, a paper tiger, but a complication nonetheless for opposing navies who will have to divert ressources to take care of it. |
| foxbat | 14 Feb 2025 3:56 a.m. PST |
Meet IRIS Shahid Bagheri, Iran's "revolutionnary" drone carrier. The vessel is able to operate choppers, jet drones from its 180 runway, and naval drones that can be lowered from its sides. link Its also armed with anti 8 × Kowsar-222 SAMs & 8 × Noor or Qader anti-ship missiles. With a 22 000 nm range, it is theiretically capable of sailing all over the globe. Now, my 2 cts : the ship looks extremely vulnerable, and its AA defences seem very low in the face of modern anti ship missiles… Not sure about Iran's ASW capabilities too. IMO, a paper tiger, but a complication nonetheless for opposing navies who will have to divert ressources to take care of it. |
| foxbat | 14 Feb 2025 4:32 a.m. PST |
I don'yt knoww what happened, the bug? please delete the other 2 topics. |
| Dagwood | 14 Feb 2025 6:29 a.m. PST |
22,000 nanometres isn't very far.
Oh, wait, nautical miles ? That's better ! |
 David Manley | 14 Feb 2025 8:10 a.m. PST |
I doubt whether anyone in the Iranian Navy thinks its very survivable either. It has great versatility but in a serious conflict against a technologically superior threat it won't remain mission effective for long |
 20thmaine | 14 Feb 2025 8:34 a.m. PST |
It would allow one to fire off a drone attack from a shorter range compared to a land launch from Iran. And maybe operate with Iran's small boat fleet as extra firepower. Depends on who you want to fight I suppose. But obviously no real threat to a major navy who would just sink it. |
| foxbat | 14 Feb 2025 9:39 a.m. PST |
"It would allow one to fire off a drone attack from a shorter range compared to a land launch from Iran." Good point, such a vessel would be very effective to combat piracy or drug smuggling, 2 plagues of which Iran is certainly less a victim than a perpetrator. But barring the USN or any NATO navy, the only likely enemies that ship would face would be The Israeli or the Saudi navies. I fail to perceive any usefulness in the concept in these cases. |
 McKinstry  | 14 Feb 2025 9:41 a.m. PST |
Built on a merchant hull and unless deployed with virtually the entire Iranian navy, virtually impossible to protect against any quality opponent. |
| Zephyr1 | 14 Feb 2025 3:51 p.m. PST |
It is actually unsinkable (as long as it remains in drydock… ;-) |
| Prince Alberts Revenge | 15 Feb 2025 11:41 a.m. PST |
I think I saw this thing off the coast of New Jersey a few months ago… |
| foxbat | 16 Feb 2025 11:11 a.m. PST |
Prince Albert, before or after it was modified? ;) More seriously, even though that tub looks fairly crappy, I still see some merit in the idea : some kind of modern Jeep carrier, useful in places where it would not be convenient to deploy a true carrier. Say, something like this off, for instance, Somalia : wouldn't it be a great deterrent for piracy? Imagine a freighter about to be attacked, calling for help and fairly fast, you get a swarm of armed drones over the bad guys' speedboats… |
