Iran says it'll deploy first locally built submarine

Fateh-class vessel said to have ‘excellent shallow depth performance’ and the capacity to fire torpedoes

Iran intends to deploy its first domestically built submarine model by March 20, 2014, which marks the end of the Iranian calendar year, the semi-official Iranian news agency ISNA reported Saturday.

The submarine, which the report said was first unveiled in 2007, is dubbed “Fateh,” or “conqueror,” recalling the Fateh-110 class of missiles produced by Iran and allegedly delivered to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

According to the report, the vessel weighs 120 tons – small for a submarine – “has excellent shallow depth performance and can conduct prolonged coastal missions and launch torpedoes.”

In September, Tehran deployed a Russian-made submarine in the Persian Gulf, one of the three Kilo-class submarines that Iran obtained in the early 1990s. A second submarine was refurbished and redeployed in May 2013.

Iran’s deputy navy chief, Admiral Abbas Zamini, said in June that Iran has begun to design its first nuclear submarine.

Israel, which has threatened to attack Iran if it fails to end its alleged quest for a nuclear weapon, possesses several German-made Dolphin-class submarines that, according to foreign reports, give it a second-strike nuclear capability.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.