DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards are building a large new support ship near the strategic Strait of Hormuz to expand its naval presence in waters vital to international resources. Associated Press show.
The construction of Shahid Mahdawi provides the Guard with a large floating base from which they can operate the small speedboats that make up the majority of their fleet and are designed to counter the US Navy and other allied forces in the area.
However, his arrival came after a series of setbacks for both the Iranian Guard and its regular fleet, including the loss of its largest warship less than a year ago. While negotiations with world powers on the Iran nuclear deal have also failed, further naval conflict between Tehran and the West remains a risk.
“They looked at the Persian Gulf, the blue waters of the Arabian and Red Seas, and the northern Indian Ocean,” said Farzin Nadimi, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who studies the Iranian military.
Shahid Mahdawi appears to be a modified Iranian cargo ship known as Sarveen, based on previous photos of the ship, which has a similar hull curve.
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“Sarvin” arrived in Bandar Abbas at the end of July last year and then turned off its sensors. Jan 29, Planet Labs PBC satellite imagery analyzed by AP shows the ship in the dry dock of Shahid Darvishi Marine Industries, affiliated with the Iranian ministry of defense, west of Bandar Abbas.
The image of Shahid Mahdawi first went viral on social media. The ship appears to have a crew and anti-aircraft guns at the bow and stern, according to HI Sutton, the ship’s military expert who first identified the ship as being near Bandar Abbas. The flag of the Revolutionary Guards with the fist logo on an assault rifle, the Quran under it and a globe behind it was hanging on the bridge of the ship.
A high-resolution photo of Planet taken on behalf of AP on Saturday shows Shahid Mahdavi still at the shipyard. Recently, one of Iran’s Kilo-class diesel attack submarines appears to be being overhauled. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, one Iranian Kilo-class submarine is operational while another is not.
When Shahid Mahdavi’s image went viral, the semi-official Fars News Agency published an article about the ship. Fars, said to be close to the guards, described the ship as a “moving maritime city” that “could ensure the security of Iran’s trade routes and the rights of Iranian sailors and fishermen on the high seas”.
“This new range of defensive and innovative wars for the construction of heavy ships and providing them with different complexes in parallel with the massive development of light ships can always keep Iran strong in and against the Persian Gulf (Gulf of Oman). of your interregional enemies, ”said Fars.
Such floating bases were already in use in the region, especially by the US Navy, during the so-called “tanker war” in the 1980s after the Iraqi invasion of Iran. During this war, when Iran’s mines were detonated against crude oil ships, the navy began escorting ships from the Persian Gulf through the narrow mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. One-fifth of the oil sold to date passes through the strait.
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During the conflict, US Special Forces operated from commercial barges that served as a forward base of operations. The Navy is still working on the idea today – the Middle East-based 5th Fleet is home to the USS Lewis B. Puller, a massive oil tanker-designed vessel that can board soldiers and attack helicopters.
“It looks like Shahid Mahdawi will be configured as a floating forward beachhead to use the US Navy term,” said Michael Connell, an Iran expert at the Center for Naval Analysis in Virginia. “Puller has been deployed in the Persian Gulf for many years, and the Iranian military is convinced of its usefulness as a platform for expeditionary warfare and force projection.”
For years, guards patrolled the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, while Iran’s regular fleet patrolled beyond the seas and oceans. The establishment of Shahid Mahdawi will give the Guardians an opportunity to expand their presence in waters previously patrolled by navies.
History has not escaped Iran either. The name choice for the guard’s newest ship, the Shahid Mahdavi or Martyr Mahdavi, came from Nader Mahdavi, an Iranian guard who was killed by the US Navy during the “tanker war” in 1987.
The US assassination of Mahdavi, which occurred after his forces opened fire on US special forces helicopters, still resonates in Iran. Tehran claimed, without proof, that America caught him alive and tortured him for the condition of his body after he was extradited. American helicopters opened fire with machine guns, rockets and small metal darts with “blinkers” at the Iranian ships, which Mahdavi was following.
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Supreme Commander Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once gave a speech in 2019 with a picture of Mahdavi next to him. This was during a series of mine attacks on Middle Eastern ships in Iran that the US Navy was blamed for during the collapse of Tehran’s nuclear deal with the world. force.
The use of the Mahdawi name suggests that the Guard sees this as a way to challenge the US Navy in the Middle East, especially since the new ship is likely to support so-called “mass attacks” that Iran could launch. launch against larger American warships.
Commander Timothy Hawkins, spokesman for the 5th Fleet, specifically declined to comment on “Shahid Mahdawi,” saying, “We try not to discuss intelligence-related issues.”
“But overall, we and our international partners pay close attention to the marine environment in the interests of regional security and stability,” Hawkins said. Said.
The arrival of Shahid Mahdawi, the largest ship in the Guard’s fleet, came amid a string of naval disasters for Iran. The Kharg, the largest warship in the regular fleet, sank in June. In 2020, a missile hit a warship while exercising, killing 19 sailors and injuring 15. In 2018, an Iranian Navy destroyer sank in the Caspian Sea.
Meanwhile, a cargo ship believed to be a Guard intelligence base in the Red Sea was hit last year by an explosion believed to have been caused by Israel. Nadimi, an analyst at the Washington Institute, said Shahid Mahdawi could play a similar role in special forces espionage and sabotage missions. It can also have long-range missiles.
“Something unpleasant may happen around this ship,” Nadimi warned.
Source: Breitbart
