TEHRAN – The Iranian Navy has unveiled four homegrown military equipment, with the aim of boosting the force’s defense power.

In a ceremony on Saturday attended by Navy Chief Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, the Navy officially unveiled the unmanned aerial vehicle “Pelikan 2” and the naval mine “Sadaf 2”, Mehr reported.

The navigation system “Soren” and the precision guided bomb “Balaban” were also unveiled during the ceremony.

Pelikan 2 is a sophisticated long-range drone, suitable for naval patrol and reconnaissance missions.

Sadaf 2 has been designed and developed for defensive missions against the surface and subsurface vessels, with a maximum depth of 100 meters.

Soren will be used to detect any single change in the geographic position of the marine vessels without any need to the GPS.

Balaban is a smart bomb with controllable fins that extend its range, and is equipped with the Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) guidance system which boost its precision.

Damavand destroyer will be equipped with the Eagle Eye radar: Khanzadi

Rear Admiral Khanzadi said the Damavand destroyer will be equipped with the Eagle Eye radar.

The Damavand destroyer has been redesigned according to the Caspian Sea conditions, Khanzadi said.

Damavand joined the Iranian Navy in the Caspian Sea in March 2015 and the Iranian officials have announced it will rejoin the naval forces in the Caspian Sea after it had an accident while docking in the Caspian Sea in January 2018.

Khanzadi also said the Be'sat submarine, which weighs more than 3,000 tons, will also be equipped with vertical launch missiles.

The designing of Be'sat and its detailed modular designing has been finished, he said, adding that constructing the new homegrown submarine will begin as early as the next Iranian calendar year (starting on March 21, 2020).

Earlier this week, Khanzadi pointed to the force's great strides in expanding its aerial and naval capabilities, saying the Navy is working round the clock to upgrade the equipment and the force “will soon witness the addition of long-range drones aboard its warships.”

MH/PA