Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is making strides in naval capabilities with the development of the IRGC Shahid Bagheri, an “aircraft carrier” converted from a commercial container ship.
Summary and Key Points: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is making strides in naval capabilities with the development of the IRGC Shahid Bagheri, an “aircraft carrier” converted from a commercial container ship.
-While it can’t match a U.S. Nimitz-class carrier, it’s designed to launch domestically produced drones, featuring an angled flight deck and a ski jump ramp.
-Despite its limitations, such as a narrow flight deck and lack of a protective strike group, the Shahid Bagheri represents a significant step in Iran’s efforts to project power and build a blue-water navy. A second similar vessel, IRGC Shahid Mahdavi, is also in development.
IRGC’s Shahid Bagheri: Iran’s Innovative Take on Aircraft Carriers
Images circulated online last week showing Iran’s progress on building an “aircraft carrier” of sorts. By no means could the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ IRGC Shahid Bagheri go head-to-head with a U.S. Navy Nimitz-class carrier, but that’s not really its point.
Built from a commercial container ship, this is Tehran’s attempt to build a carrier quickly and without spending billions of dollars. It will be employed to launch Iran’s domestically produced unmanned aerial systems – the Middle Eastern nation has made a lot of progress on its drones in recent years. The latest images revealed that Shahid Bagheri has a nearly complete angled flight deck with a ski jump ramp similar to the ones employed on the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class carriers and on Russia’s flagship flattop Admiral Kuznetsov.
The conversion from a container ship may limit some of the carrier’s capabilities, including its ability to launch and recover aircraft.
“The fact that the Shahid Bagheri retains the original superstructure, which spans the entire width of the deck, means that a conventional flattop configuration cannot be adopted,” The War Zone reported. “Instead, an angled flight deck provides the requisite runway length, presumably for launch and recovery. Adding the angled deck, which extends all the way to the bow ramp, involves the construction of a prominent overhang or flare on the left-hand side of the vessel.”