Iranian frigate Sahand

For other uses, see Sahand (disambiguation).
A starboard bow view of the Iranian destroyer escort ITS Faramarz (DE 74), redesignated as IRS Sahand (F 74)
Career (Iran)
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:2 shafts, 2 Paxman Ventura cruising diesels, 3,800 bhp (2,830 kW), 17 knots
2 Rolls Royce Olympus TM2 boost gas turbines, 46,000 shp (34,300 kW), 39 knots (72 km/h)
Speed:39 knots (72 km/h) max
Range:5,000 nmi (9,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement:125-146
Armament:5 x Sea Killer anti-ship missiles
1 × 4.5 inch (114 mm) Mark 8 gun
1 x twin 20 mm AAA, 2 x single 20 mm AAA
2 × 81 mm mortars, 2 × 0.50cal machine guns, 1 x Limbo ASW mortar, 2 x triple 12.75 in torpedo tubes

Iranian frigate Sahand (in Persian سهند), a British-made Vosper Mark V class frigate (also known as Alvand class frigate), was commissioned as part of a four-ship order. The ship was originally called Faramarz, named after a character in Ferdosi's Shahnameh. However after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, it was renamed Sahand, after the Sahand volcano.

The Iranian Navy ship was sunk in Operation Praying Mantis on 18 April 1988. Located by two American A-6E Intruders of Attack Squadron 95 steaming roughly ten miles southwest of Larak Island, she was hit by two Harpoon missiles and two AGM-123 Skipper II laser-guided bombs. A pair of Rockeye cluster bombs from the aircraft and a single Harpoon from the USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) finished off the ship. Left heavily aflame, dead in the water and listing to port, the Sahand burned for several hours before fire reached her ammunition magazines and detonated, sinking the ship in over 200 meters (660 feet) of water southwest of Larak Island.

Iran is building a Moudge class ship named Sahand in memory of the original Sahand.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Faramarz (6132433)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 9 December 2009. (subscription required (help)).

References