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One of the remaining two Shahid Soleimani-Class missile corvettes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy was hit by strikes just off the shores of the port city of Bandar Abbas in southwestern Iran on March 9, according to video footage posted online.
The footage shows a massive fireball erupting from the corvette, which was apparently hit by guided bombs, not some anti-ship cruise missile.
The U.S. struck two Shahid Soleimani-Class missile corvettes of four operated by the IRGC Navy on March 4, just five days into the American-Israeli war on Iran. The two corvettes were identified as IRIS Shahid Soleimani, the leading vessel of the class, and IRIS Sayyad Shirazi. The one hit recently is either IRIS Hassan Bagheri, or IRIS Ra’is-Ali Delvari, which was commissioned just last year.
This class is named after Qasem Soleimani, the IRGC’s Quds Force commander who was assassinated by the U.S. in Iraq some six years ago.
Corvettes of this class feature a catamaran — twin hull — design with sharp angles to give it a more stealthy design. All four have the same displacement, 600 tones.
IRIS Shahid Soleimani was heavily armed, with six anti-ship cruise missiles and up to 16 vertically-launched anti-aircraft missiles, in addition to a helipad and space to carry fast attack boats. The armament of all three other corvettes is very much the same.
The U.S. has not yet confirmed that it was behind the strikes that hit the third Shahid Soleimani-Class missile corvette, but considering that the previous two were hit by the forces of the Central Command (CENTCOM), there is little doubt that the strikes were also American.
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Right after the start of the war, President Donald Trump stated that destroying Iran’s naval forces was one of the main goals.
CENTCOM has been leading operations against both the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy and the IRGC Navy since the start of the war.
On March 7, Trump said that the U.S. military has so far “knocked out” 42 Iranian warships, without providing much details.
“We are doing very well in Iran, you see the result,” he said, addressing Latin American leaders during his Shield of Americas Summit in Florida. “Its been amazing, we’ve knocked out 42 navy ships, some of them very large, in three days. That was the end of the navy.”
While CENTCOM has been successful in taking down Iranian warships, the anti-shipping capabilities of the Islamic Republic are very much still intact.
Iran has so far hit over ten tankers, de facto closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz. This had a significant impact on global energy markets. The U.S. will not likely be able to stop these attacks, which are launched from the Iranian coast, any time soon.
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it’s only a matter of time before u.s warships begin to be hit.
time to sink a rusty ussan tub and make a new reef for the little fishes.z
slava trump!
prine target.. why simple iran left it alone to be destroyed ??