South Front
The Abu Mahdi anti-ship cruise missile. Source: the Islamic Republic News Agency.
The Iranian Navy has armed all of its “destroyers” with Abu Mahdi anti-ship cruise missiles, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani revealed during an interview with Fars News agency on May 6.
The cruise missile, which is named after former Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units deputy commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was unveiled on 20 August 2020 along with a ballistic missile named after former Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani. The two senior commanders were killed together in a United States drone strike that took place near the international airport of the Iraqi capital, Bahgada, earlier that year.
The design of the Abu Mahdi cruise missile is derived from the Soviet-era Kh-55, several of which were illegally sold to Iran by Ukraine in 2001. The turbojet-propelled winged missile has a range of up to 1,000 kilometers and is thought to be equipped with an active radar homing seeker.
Irani said that the Abu Mahdi cruise missile can withstand electronic warfare means, noting that the missile has been already tested.
The Rare Admiral added that the combat capability, the destruction rate, and the range of the cruise missile are considerable, revealing that increasing the range of the missile is on the agenda of the Iranian Navy.
Iranian military commanders usually use the term “destroyer” to refer to their largest warships, which are the Alvand-class frigates, Alvand, Alborz and Sabalan. This class has a displacement of 1,400 tons, around 800 tons less of a standard light destroyer.
While the Iranian ballistic missile program gets most of the attention, the country’s cruise missile program is no less advanced. Last February, the Aerospace Force of the Iranian The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps unveiled a land-attack cruise missile, dubbed Paveh, with a range of 1,650 kilometers.
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