By Logan Williams, Warrior Editorial Fellow
Iran held an unveiling ceremony on Sunday, October 7th, to showcase its new military capabilities, ostensibly in an attempt to send a message to the United States and its allies. The star of the show was a new warship, named for the Iraqi terrorist and deputy commander of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike alongside Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force (IRGC-QF), a military unit dedicated to the training, equipping, and financing of international terrorists. This warship seems to be a smaller derivative of another warship, which took Soleimani as its namesake, which had entered service in 2022. The word Shahid is affixed to the names of these vessels, before the name al-Muhandis or Soleimani — i.e., the full name of the vessel is Shahid Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Shahid is the Arabic word for martyr.
It is important to note that this vessel is operated by the Navy of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC-N), which is a separate entity from the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN). The two naval entities serve distinct purposes, and thus, are equipped differently. The IRIN is the Iranian state’s traditional green-water navy, designed for ensuring the “security” of Iran’s immediate territorial waters. Thus, the IRIN is equipped with traditional vessels ranging from frigates to amphibious assault ships, but with no larger vessels like the United States’ destroyers or cruisers. The IRGC-N operates as a subversive terrorist-militia organization, specializing in unprovoked attacks upon other vessels, using maritime guerrilla warfare tactics, such as speedboat swarms. As such, the IRGC-N is almost completely armed with fast attack craft.
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The al-Muhandis vessel is classified as a catamaran (a vessel designed with two parallel hulls) corvette, although technically it is smaller than the variable metric of 500-800 tons which is often cited as the beginning of the lower-end of the corvette classification — the al-Muhandis has a displacement of approximately 300 tons. The al-Muhandis two hulls are designed with the same wave-cutting features of most modern warships, and reportedly has a top speed of 37 knots (according to Iranian state-owned media, so these numbers are almost certainly inflated), a comparable speed to various United States’ warships.
The Iranian al-Muhandis Warship
Again, according to the claims of Iranian state-media, the al-Muhandis is equipped with four 20mm machine guns, a 30mm cannon, and a launcher carrying eight surface-to-air missiles. The al-Muhandis is also equipped with a landing deck for the launching and receiving of UAVs, as well as six canisters for anti-ship missiles. The al-Muhandis lacks vertical launch capability for its SAMs, a function which other, larger Iranian vessels possess, instead the massive canisters are clearly visible toward the ship’s stern.
The 30mm cannon with which the al-Muhandis is equipped is the Russian Shipunov 2A42, with a maximum firing rate of 800 rounds per minute, and a maximum firing range of 4,000 meters.
The anti-ship cruise missiles with which the vessel is equipped is the Qader anti-ship missile, a knockoff of the Chinese C-802 anti-ship missile. These are sea-skimming missiles, with a terminal flight altitude of three to five meters, and active radar honing. These missiles have a maximum range of 300 kilometers (a maximum of just under 200 miles).
The surface-to-air missiles with which the al-Muhandis is equipped are almost certainly of the Sayyad 2/3 family, or more specifically, the naval derivative named Mehrab. These missiles have a maximum range of approximately 70 kilometers (50 miles), and a service ceiling of up to 30km.
The VTOL drone which will likely be fielded on the al-Muhandis is the newly-developed Pelican-2, which can carry a 30 lbs payload, and land as well as float on water.
Iranian state-media also claims that it possesses stealth technology to reduce its radar signature.
The al-Muhandis is heavily armed for a ship of its size, but otherwise, there really isn’t anything special about it — even if the vessel truly possesses stealth technology. Iran has attempted to present this vessel as a sea-going ship, claiming that it has an operational radius of 2,000 miles, and can operate in Sea State 6 — characterized as very rough seas with 20-foot waves and winds approaching or exceeding 40 knots.
In all likelihood, the al-Muhandis is a small vessel, comparable in size the United States Cyclone-class patrol boat, and is almost certainly bound to littoral operations. The al-Muhandis may be able to conduct operations in the Persian Gulf and harass ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz. At the furthest, if the vessel utilized a technique such as island-hopping to remain in shallow, coastal waters, the al-Muhandis could be capable of traveling as far as the Gulf of Aden, the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the Red Sea, to assist the Iranian-proxy, terrorist, Houthis.
The al-Muhandis may be one of the most aesthetic and futuristic vessels to set sail, but it cannot be considered a formidable naval vessel, it serves little purpose other than to give the IRGC-N another – granted, much more heavily armed – tool with which to harass U.S. Navy vessels working to ensure stability in the region.
Logan Williams currently studies at the University of Connecticut. He is an International Affairs Researcher; Work Published in Newspapers, Magazines, and Journals, Such As: Geopolitics Magazine, Modern Diplomacy, Tufts University’s The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, Democracy Paradox, Diario Las Américas, International Affairs Forum, Fair Observer, History Is Now Magazine, UNC at Chapel Hill’s American Diplomacy, The Center for Military Modernization’s Warrior Maven Magazine,
