IRIS Sahand (1969)
![]() A starboard bow view of the Iranian destroyer escort ITS Faramarz (DE 74), redesignated as IRS Sahand (F 74)
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History | |
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Name | IIS Faramarz |
Namesake | Faramarz |
Ordered | 1960 |
Builder | Vosper Thornycroft, Woolston[1] |
Yard number | 1080[1] |
Launched | 30 July 1969[1] |
Commissioned | February 1972[1] |
Renamed | Sahand, 1985[1] |
Namesake | Sahand volcano |
Homeport | Bandar-Abbas |
Fate | Sunk in Operation Praying Mantis, 19 April 1988[1] |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Alvand-class frigate |
Displacement | 1,100 tons (1,540 tons full load) |
Length | 94.5 m (310 ft) |
Beam | 11.07 m (36.3 ft) |
Draught | 3.25 m (10.7 ft) |
Propulsion |
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Speed | 39 knots (72 km/h) max |
Range | 5,000 nmi (9,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
Complement | 125-146 |
Armament |
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Iranian frigate Sahand (Persian: سهند) was a British-made Vosper Mark V class frigate (also known as the Alvand class) commissioned as part of a four-ship order. The ship was originally called Faramarz, named after a character in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution it was renamed Sahand, after the Sahand volcano.
Construction
On 10 May 1970, she was damaged by fire while fitting out.[2]
Service history
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ab/Bild-Prayingmantis5sahand.jpg/220px-Bild-Prayingmantis5sahand.jpg)
The Iranian Navy ship was sunk in Operation Praying Mantis on 18 April 1988. Located by two American A-6E Intruders of Attack Squadron VA-95 steaming roughly 16 kilometres (10 mi) southwest of Larak Island, she was hit by two Harpoon missiles and four AGM-123 Skipper II laser-guided missiles. A pair of Rockeye cluster bombs from the aircraft and a single Harpoon from the destroyer USS Joseph Strauss finished the destruction of the ship.[3]
Left heavily aflame, dead in the water and listing to port, Sahand burned for several hours before fires reached her ammunition magazines and they detonated, sinking her in over 660 feet (200 metres) of water southwest of Larak Island. Forty-five members of her crew were killed.[3]
Iran has commissioned a Moudge-class frigate named Sahand in memory of the original Sahand.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f "Faramarz (6132433)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
- ^ Silverstone, Paul H. (1970), "Naval Intelligence", Warship International, 7 (4), International Naval Research Organization: 315, JSTOR 44887436
- ^ a b "Islamic Republic News Agency" (in Persian). Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
References
- Hiro, Dilip (1991). The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict. London: Routledge Chapman & Hall, Inc. ISBN 0-415-90406-4.
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