State media reported that the Revolutionary Guards officially launched Iran’s first drone carrier in the Gulf. The ship, named Martyr Bahman Bagheri, has been transformed from its previous state as a commercial ship into a carrier of drones over the past two-and-a-half years. The event was joined by Guards naval commander Alireza Tangsiri.
Tangsiri hailed the drone carrier as the “largest naval military project” to date for the Islamic Republic. Equipped with a state-of-the-art capability, the vessel could launch long-range missiles while housing drones and helicopters. The state-of-the-art vessel was equipped for electronic warfare and can operate at sea without returning for a year with an ability to take up to 60 drones on board, the IRNA state news agency quoted him saying.
During the ceremony, Guards chief Hossein Salami repeated that Iran is not the country to threaten anybody, but “we will not bow to the threat of any power.” The announcement came after the official unveiling of a new ballistic missile this week said to have a range of 1,700 kilometers or 1,056 miles, presented during an event that President Masoud Pezeshkian attended.
Since the 1979 revolution, which broke ties with the United States—Iran’s main arms supplier at the time—the country has made great strides in missile and drone technology. The launch of the drone carrier comes as the country marks the Fajr decade, a ten-day celebration of the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah of Iran.
Over the past years, but more so since US President Donald Trump’s return to power and the “maximum pressure” policy against Iran, the Iranian government has been flexing its muscles through the organization of large-scale military maneuvers and revealing underground military facilities.
