By Pishtaz | 2024-07-11

The Iranian navy lost a stealth warship July 9 in the country's most recent military mishap, when the Sahand, a domestically developed Moudge-class frigate, sank off the port of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz.

The Sahand had capsized onto its port side July 7 in shallow water while undergoing repairs ahead of a mission in the Indian Ocean, per media reports.

The vessel lost its balance when water flooded into its ballast tanks, Iran's state-owned news agency, IRNA, reported, adding that an unspecified number of people injured during the incident had been transferred to hospital.

The warship was briefly rebalanced, but on July 8 the rope holding it broke and it sank, Iran's Nournews agency reported.

The Sahand joined the Southern Fleet of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN), which is based in Bandar Abbas, in 2018.

The 1,300-ton, 315-foot "destroyer" featured a helicopter flight deck, torpedo launchers, anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles and stealth technologies designed to evade enemy radars.

Sahand was named for a frigate of the same name -- itself named for a volcano in East Azarbaijan province -- that was sunk by the US Navy off Larak Island in Gulf waters on April 18, 1988 in retaliation for the mining of a US warship.

The newer frigate had recently led a flotilla of Iranian vessels deployed to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as Iran's proxies, the Houthis, attacked vessels in the strategic waterways, according to Iran International.

In June 2021, the Sahand was believed to be headed for Venezuela on what was thought to be an arms transfer mission, but changed course and went towards Africa, it said.

Troubles with Iranian fleet

Military mishaps have become more common in Iran, where much of the aging and dilapidated navy equipment dates from before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran's second-largest naval vessel, the Kharg, sank June 2, 2021 in the Gulf of Oman off the coast of Iran's Jask island, spilling oil into the water, after a fire that reportedly started in the engine room.

The Kharg was built in the 1970s, and analysts said the blaze was likely due to the vessel's age.

Iran launched its first domestically-manufactured destroyer in 2010.

Its second Moudge-class frigate -- Northern Fleet flagship Damavand, also named for a mountain -- sank in January 2018 after crashing into the breakwater at Bandar-e Anzali in the Caspian Sea.

At the time of Sahand's launch, navy shipyards head Rear-Admiral Alireza Sheikhi told IRNA it was the result of "daring and creative design relying on the local technical knowledge of the Iranian Navy," Al-Jazeera reported.