Last week, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) gained an interesting new addition – the Shahid Bagheri, described as “the world’s first purpose-built drone carrier” by Iranian government propaganda channel PressTV. The release goes on to say that “it is a true drone carrier, designed specifically to launch and recover wheeled UAVs. This sets it apart from aircraft carriers, helicopter carriers, and amphibious assault ships, where drone operations remain supplementary.”
The release is about as truthful and consistent as PressTV generally is, as the Bagheri was not designed or purpose built as a drone carrier: she’s actually a converted container ship, as even PressTV admits. She now has a ski-jump bow ramp, arrester wires on an angled flight deck and what look like pretty small aircraft lifts down to the holds/hangars below.
At 42,000 tons and 240 meters long, Bagheri is roughly two-thirds the size of a Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth class carrier, similar in size to the French carrier Charles de Gaulle and comfortably the IRGCN’s largest vessel. (The regular Iranian Navy, not part of the Guard forces, has an oil tanker converted into a forward-base ship which is even bigger.) The original container-ship superstructure sits awkwardly across the ship, two-thirds of the way back from the bow. Real purpose-built carriers almost always have their superstructure in the form of narrow islands set to one side. It seems as if cost and complexity prevented the Iranians from moving it. There is much talk in the announcements about how this isn’t a limiting factor: we’ll see. Time will also tell what adding another 14 metres to the beam of the ship so the runway can go past the superstructure will do to the transverse stability of the ship during flying operations.
Range and firepower feature heavily in the announcements, as you would expect. Bagheri will fly Ababil-3 and Mohajer-6 surveillance drones and Qaher-313 “combat UAVs” with a range of approximately 1200 nautical miles. The Qaher-313 is supposedly in the same class as a small jet fighter and has a stealthy design, though there is some doubt as to whether it really exists as a genuine flying system. There can’t be much doubt, however, that the Bagheri could loose off a big swarm of more basic one-way-attack drones, though there’d be no need for the angled flight deck in that case. The carrier will also operate various helicopters, including the Mil Mi-17, Bell-412 and Shahed 278. Between them they can conduct anti-surface, anti-submarine and ship-to-shore operations.
Last week, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) gained an interesting new addition – the Shahid Bagheri, described as “the world’s first purpose-built drone carrier” by Iranian government propaganda channel PressTV. The release goes on to say that “it is a true drone carrier, designed specifically to launch and recover wheeled UAVs. This sets it apart from aircraft carriers, helicopter carriers, and amphibious assault ships, where drone operations remain supplementary.”
The release is about as truthful and consistent as PressTV generally is, as the Bagheri was not designed or purpose built as a drone carrier: she’s actually a converted container ship, as even PressTV admits. She now has a ski-jump bow ramp, arrester wires on an angled flight deck and what look like pretty small aircraft lifts down to the holds/hangars below.
At 42,000 tons and 240 meters long, Bagheri is roughly two-thirds the size of a Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth class carrier, similar in size to the French carrier Charles de Gaulle and comfortably the IRGCN’s largest vessel. (The regular Iranian Navy, not part of the Guard forces, has an oil tanker converted into a forward-base ship which is even bigger.) The original container-ship superstructure sits awkwardly across the ship, two-thirds of the way back from the bow. Real purpose-built carriers almost always have their superstructure in the form of narrow islands set to one side. It seems as if cost and complexity prevented the Iranians from moving it. There is much talk in the announcements about how this isn’t a limiting factor: we’ll see. Time will also tell what adding another 14 metres to the beam of the ship so the runway can go past the superstructure will do to the transverse stability of the ship during flying operations.
Range and firepower feature heavily in the announcements, as you would expect. Bagheri will fly Ababil-3 and Mohajer-6 surveillance drones and Qaher-313 “combat UAVs” with a range of approximately 1200 nautical miles. The Qaher-313 is supposedly in the same class as a small jet fighter and has a stealthy design, though there is some doubt as to whether it really exists as a genuine flying system. There can’t be much doubt, however, that the Bagheri could loose off a big swarm of more basic one-way-attack drones, though there’d be no need for the angled flight deck in that case. The carrier will also operate various helicopters, including the Mil Mi-17, Bell-412 and Shahed 278. Between them they can conduct anti-surface, anti-submarine and ship-to-shore operations.