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IRIS Alborz (72)

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Alborz in 2019
History
Iran
NameZaal
NamesakeZaal
Ordered1960
BuilderVickers, Barrow
Yard number1080[1]
Laid down3 March 1968[1]
Launched4 March 1969;[1] 55 years ago.
Sponsored byAbbas Aram
Commissioned1 March 1971[1]
RenamedAlborz, 1985[1]
NamesakeAlborz mountain range
HomeportBandar-Abbas
Identification
Statusin active service
General characteristics
Class and typeAlvand-class frigate
Displacement1,100 tons (1,540 tons full load)
Length94.5 m (310 ft 0 in)
Beam11.07 m (36 ft 4 in)
Draught3.25 m (10 ft 8 in)
Propulsion
  • 2 shafts, 2 Paxman Ventura cruising diesels, 3,800 bhp (2,800 kW)
  • 2 Rolls-Royce Olympus TM2 boost gas turbines, 46,000 shp (34,000 kW)
Speed39 knots (72 km/h) max
Range5,000 nmi (9,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement125-146
Armament
  • 8 × Noor anti-ship missiles
  • 1 × 4.5 inch (114 mm) Mark 8 gun
  • 1 × 30 mm Kamand CIWS
  • 1 x dual 35mm Oerlikon GDF
  • 2 x single 20 mm AAA
  • 2 × 81 mm mortars
  • 2 × 0.50 cal (12.7 mm) machine guns
  • 2 × triple 12.75 in torpedo tubes

Alborz (Persian: البرز) is an Alvand-class frigate, Vosper Mark V, of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy. It was supplied to pre-revolutionary Iran's Imperial Iranian Navy by Great Britain. Launched in 1969, the frigate dates back to the time of the Shah of Iran.

History

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1968–1999

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Alborz is an Alvand-class frigate (based on the Vosper Mark 5 design) of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy.[2] It was supplied to pre-revolutionary Iran's Imperial Iranian Navy by the United Kingdom during the time of the Shah of Iran.[3][4]

The ship was originally called Zaal, named after Zaal, a mythical warrior of ancient Iran and an important character in Ferdowsi's epic poem Shahnameh. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution it was renamed Alborz, after the Iranian Alborz mountain range.

Alborz was laid down on 3 March 1968, launched on 4 March 1969, and commissioned on 1 March 1971.[1]

She completed her refit on 15 May 1977 at Portsmouth, England.[5]

On 1 June 1987 Alborz stopped a Cypriot large bulk carrier Vevey, and searched it for possible war material for Iraq.[6] Although this was within the Iranian captain's right to do so under international law, this became known as the first search-and-seizure of the Iran–Iraq War.[7]

In 1988, during Operation Praying Mantis, an attack by the United States Armed Forces within Iranian territorial waters in retaliation for the Iranian naval mining of international waters in the Persian Gulf during the Iran–Iraq War and the subsequent damage to an American guided missile frigate, it saw little use as the Iranian Navy proved no match for the U.S. Navy.[8]

2000–present

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Alborz (2009)

In January 2010 the ship was sent to the Gulf of Aden, to protect Iranian maritime interests.[9]

In April 2015, Alborz was deployed along with the supply vessel Bushehr (together, the Iranian Navy's 34th Fleet) to deliver arms shipments from Iran to the Houthis in Yemen, challenging a Saudi Arabian-Emirati blockade of Yemini ports from the delivery of such shipments.[10][11] The US responded by sending the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt to the Gulf of Aden, challenging the Iranian ships, which responded in turn by turning around and heading back to Iran.[11]

Judging by photographs, it underwent another modernization during which the Iranian six-barrel 30 mm (1.2 in) Kamand anti-aircraft artillery system was installed on it with an opto-electronic system for detecting and tracking targets.[12][13]

On 1 January 2024, Alborz—at this point 51 years old—deployed to the Red Sea after passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait.[14][15] This happened against a backdrop of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis targeting vessels in the Red Sea for weeks, and a day after US Navy helicopters sank three Houthi-operated boats that had attacked a container ship in the Red Sea.[14] Iran Defence Minister Mohammad-Reza Gharaei Ashtiani said "nobody can make a move in a region where we have predominance".[16]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Zaal (6132432)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
  2. ^ Anthony H. Cordesman, Lin Aaron (2015). The Iranian Sea-Air-Missile Threat to Gulf Shipping, Center for Strategic & International Studies.
  3. ^ Sisk, Richard (31 October 2017). "Two Iranian Warships Now Escorting Iranian Cargo Ships Off Yemen". Military.com.
  4. ^ Anthony H. Cordesman (2005). Iran's Developing Military Capabilities, Center for Strategic & International Studies.
  5. ^ Silverstone, Paul H. (1977), "Naval Intelligence", Warship International, 14 (4), International Naval Research Organization: 284–285, JSTOR 44890143
  6. ^ Lee Allen Zatarain (2010). America's First Clash with Iran; The Tanker War, 1987–88, Casemate Publishers.
  7. ^ "Vincennes". Archived from the original on 9 December 2006. Retrieved 16 June 2007.
  8. ^ Jonathan Marcus (10 January 2012). "Is a US-Iran maritime clash inevitable?". BBC News. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  9. ^ "World Navies in Review | Proceedings - March 2010 Vol. 136/3/1,285".
  10. ^ "Two Iranian warships reach Gulf of Aden". aa.com.tr. 21 April 2015.
  11. ^ a b Nader Uskowi (2018). Temperature Rising; Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Wars in the Middle East
  12. ^ "Модернизация иранского фрегата Alborz". 5 December 2019.
  13. ^ "Janes | Latest defence and security news".
  14. ^ a b "Iranian warship Alborz enters Red Sea amid tensions: State media". Al Arabiya English. 1 January 2024.
  15. ^ Farda, RFE/RL's Radio (1 January 2024). "Iran Deploys Destroyer To Tense Red Sea". Radio Free Europe.
  16. ^ "Iran warns against proposed U.S.-backed Red Sea force - ISNA," Reuters.
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