“The first feature of Sahand is that its radar-evading capability has increased up to 30% and the form of its hull makes its detection by radars more difficult,” Head of the Self-Sufficiency Jihad of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Ali Qolamzadeh told FNA on Wednesday.
He said that the volume of Sahand’s store, deposit and stock rooms have increased in a way that it can continue sailing distances twice farther than what Jamaran could traverse.
“Also the number of its radar and weapons system has at least been doubled and new electronic war systems have been mounted on it,” Qolamzadeh said.
He said that the Navy will also mount its new long-range phased-array radar system, named ‘Asr’, on Sahand if no newer radar system is made in the country until the destroyer is prepared for mission.
Late November, the Iranian Navy unveiled the home-made ‘Asr’ radar in a ceremony concurrent with November 28 which marks the ‘Navy Day’ in Iran, during which the Navy discloses its latest achievements in weaponry and equipment every year.
Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Brigadier General Abdul-Rahim Mousavi and Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari attended the unveiling ceremony of ‘Asr’.
In September, Qolamzadeh announced that he Iranian Navy is testing Asr radar.
“This radar which has been manufactured by the experts of the country’s defense industry and Navy is currently undergoing (different) tests and will be mounted on some warships of the Navy in future,” he said at the time.
Tehran launched an arms development program during the 1980-88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and fighter planes.
Yet, Iranian officials have always stressed that the country's military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.
Iran in June launched its overhauled and modernized destroyer named Bayandor in the Southern waters of the country in the presence of Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi and Rear Admiral Sayyari.
Army officials said the Iranian Navy's power of safeguarding the country's territorial waters as well as maintaining security in regional and international waters will increase after the launch of Bayandor.
Overhauling the main engines, heat exchangers and fuel and oil systems as well as optimizing the monitoring control systems are among the measures adopted before launching the destroyer.
Navy experts have also mounted a fire control system for the destroyer's weapons, a 76-mm and a 40-mm canons and a surface-to-surface Nour (Light) missile system on the destroyer.
In May, Sayyari had declared that Iran can use the destroyer to carry out missions in international waters in the future.
He said the destroyer is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment such as missile, torpedo, artillery, sonar and other information and communication systems.
In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems.
Iran's first home-made destroyer, Jamaran, was launched in late February 2010. The Mowdge Class vessel has a displacement of around 14,000 tons and is equipped with modern radars and electronic warfare capabilities and is armed with a variety of anti-ship, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles.
Iranian defense ministry officials had said earlier that the third generation of the home-made vessel, Jamaran-3 destroyer, will come into operation by the end of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2013 - March 20, 2014).
