Iran’s upcoming destroyer will have hypersonic missiles

Iran’s forthcoming destroyer, the Damavand-2, will feature hypersonic missiles, according to chief Rear Admiral Shahram Irani.

The Moudge-class warship is reportedly undergoing operational tests and will be inducted into the fleet shortly.

“All the defense equipment installed in the Damavand 2 destroyer is completely up-to-date,” Mehr News Agency quoted Irani as saying.

Iranian Hypersonic Missile

The development comes within a month of Tehran unveiling a hypersonic ballistic missile with a stated range of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles).

Irani added that the vessel is equipped with combat and reconnaissance systems.

However, he did not specify whether the warship would be equipped with the weapon from the start, or be outfitted with it later. The warship’s tentative induction date was also not revealed.

Warship-Building Capacity

Citing advisor to the Iranian defense minister in marine industries Manouchehr Alipour, Mehr News Agency wrote that the destroyer took a lot less time to build compared to its predecessors.

“It took 12 years to build the first Jamaran-class destroyer. Later, the Damavand-1 was built in 8 years and Dena was delivered to the Navy after 6 years,” Alipour said.

“We hope to deliver the Damavand-2 [to the Navy] in a much shorter time. We manufactured Damavand’s initial hull in 4 years, but the process [to build] the Damavand-2 took [only] 11 months,” he added.

“The reason for the amazing reduction in the time needed for designing the hull and building the destroyers was that we became proficient in designing and engineering destroyers and their equipment.”

The Damavand-1

The 100-meter (328 feet), 1,300-ton Damavand-1 joined the Iranian Navy’s northern fleet in March 2015.

Three years later, it collided with a breakwater at the Caspian port of Bandar Anzali and sank. It was later reportedly recovered and repaired.