Iran’s Damavand-2 Destroyer to Join Navy

Iran’s homegrown Damavand-2 destroyer will soon join the Navy's northern fleet in the Caspian Sea.

The Mowj-class frigate is currently passing its operational tests in the northern fleet, Iranian media reported Saturday. This advanced type of Jamaran destroyer is equipped with new radar and missile systems, as well as propulsion and weaponry systems.

“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. 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,” said Manouchehr Alipour, an advisor to the Iranian defense minister in marine industries and the deputy head of the Marine Industries Organization (MIO).

“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.”

Damavand-1, a 100-meter-long destroyer weighing more than 1,300 tons and armed with an anti-ship cruise missile launcher and a 76mm gun, officially joined the Iranian Navy's northern fleet in March 2015. Three years later, it collided with a breakwater while docking at the Caspian port of Bandar Anzali and sank there.