TEHRAN, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Navy of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Saturday took delivery of a new domestically-developed high-speed patrol warship as well as 100 homegrown vessels capable of launching missiles, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The new vessels, along with some other military gears, joined the IRGC's naval fleet in a ceremony in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, which was attended by IRGC's Chief Commander Hossein Salami and Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri, the report said.
According to Fars, the patrol warship has been named after Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi commander who was killed alongside Iran's Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on Jan. 3, 2020.
The report said among the other military watercraft that joined the IRGC Navy were four Zolfaqar vessels, five Ashura-class vessels equipped with Kowsar medium-range anti-ship missiles, nine Mersad-class reconnaissance vessels, one fireboat and one Tareq-class vessel that was capable of launching missiles with a range of 180 kilometers.
Some of the delivered military gears were missile launcher vehicles and mortars, it added.
Tangsiri noted that running on four homegrown propulsion systems, the warship was capable of reaching a speed of over 37 knots, had a 14-day naval endurance, and could sail within a radius of 2,000 nautical miles without being detected by enemy radars.
The warship could also hit hostile targets with surface-to-surface cruise missiles within a range of 35-750 kilometers. ■
