Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launches aircraft-carrying ship

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard says it launched a heavy warship today capable of carrying helicopters, drones and missile launchers amid ongoing tensions with the US.

Photographs of the ship, named after slain Guard naval commander Abdollah Roudaki, shows it carrying truck-launched surface-to-surface missiles and anti-aircraft missiles. It also carries four small fast boats, the kind the Guard routinely uses in the Persian Gulf. Sailors man deck-mounted machine guns.

The Guard says the ship has a length of 150 meters (492 feet). By comparison, a US Nimitz-class aircraft carrier has a length of 332 meters (1,092 feet). The Guard’s ship does not have a runway, but includes a landing pad for a helicopter.

The commander of the Guard’s navy, Adm. Ali Reza Tangsiri, suggests his forces wanted to move beyond the waters of the Gulf into deep-water patrolling. Typically, the Guard covers the waters of the Persian Gulf, while Iran’s navy patrols the Gulf of Oman and beyond.

“Presence and assignments in the Indian Ocean is our right,” Tangsiri says.

— AP