The Iranian Navy frigate Sahand sank at the port of Bandar Abbas on Tuesday, two days after it capsized during repairs and was rebalanced in a last-ditch effort to save the ship.
The IRIS Sahand was one of Iran’s newest and most advanced warships, a Moudge-class frigate launched in 2018 and extensively upgraded in 2021 with improved radar, air defense missiles, and double its original capacity for carrying anti-ship missiles.
The Moudge class is based on the British Vosper Mark 5 design, which dates back to the mid-1960s. The British supplied Iran with a number of these ships before the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The original loadout included anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, torpedo launchers, and missiles for attacking both air and surface targets.
Iran created the Moudge frigates as a more modern improvement to the original design, prominently including a more narrow and sharply angled hull that might have been intended to reduce its radar signature.
These factors might have combined to cause the Sahand to capsize because its hull was too narrow, and it was overloaded with heavy weapons. The Sahand was reportedly carrying far more ordnance than other ships in its class. The ship was able to make a symbolic voyage to Russia in 2021 to participate in a naval parade, but that was before it was upgraded and packed with more weapons.
Some images have been posted by local media in Hormozgan province showing the light frigate IRIS Sahand capsized in the port of Bandar Abbas
— Aᴍɪʀ (@AmirIGM) July 7, 2024
Sahand had received new weapons and sensors in recent years pic.twitter.com/q3QyCLfH7M
Western military analysts believe Iran has been using relatively stealthy ships like the IRIS Sahand to assist the Houthi terrorists of Yemen in targeting commercial vessels with their drones and missiles.
According to Iranian state media, the Sahand was docked in Bandar Abbas to receive “repairs” for unspecified reasons. On Sunday, the ship “lost its balance due to water ingress,” listing more than 90 degrees to port and becoming partially submerged.
Saltwater usually wreaks havoc on sensitive electronics, even on civilian ships, so vessels have been scrapped after similar incidents. The Iranian Navy decided to try to save the Sahand by rebalancing it, but, on Tuesday, state media reported that the effort had failed, and the frigate was lost.
“The Sahand warship, which was rebalanced on the water with great difficulty on Monday, has now sunk after the rope holding the ship broke,” Iran’s Nournews agency said. Several minor injuries were reported during the incident.
The Iranian Navy has a long history of serious accidents, including another frigate in the Moudge class, the IRIS Damavand, which capsized and sank in 2018 after it ran aground on a sea wall.
Another such frigate, the IRIS Talayieh, actually suffered the exact same fate as the Sahand in December 2021, rolling over and sinking while docked at Bandar Abbas. The unfortunate Talayieh sank in port before it had even been formally commissioned.
The opposition-run Iran International news site on Tuesday quoted unnamed “security analysts” who suggested that the Sahand might have been sunk by “an Israeli cyberattack amid the ongoing shadow war between the two enemies.”
The ship that sank on Tuesday was actually the second Iranian frigate named Sahand. The first one was sent to the bottom by the U.S. Navy in April 1988 as part of Operation Praying Mantis, a retaliatory operation after Iran critically damaged the U.S.-guided missile frigate Samuel B. Roberts with a mine.
The U.S. Navy hit the original Sahand with multiple Harpoon missiles in America’s first surface-to-surface battle since World War II, detonating its magazine and killing all 45 of its crew members.
