Commander of the Iranian Navy, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, announced that a Qadir-class midget submarine of the Iranian Navy has test-fired an anti-ship missile for the first time ever on the third and last day of “Velayat 97” naval drills.
“Our Qadir-class submarines have so far fired cruise missiles and Fateh has this capability too and we will display it in future drills,” Rear Admiral Khanzadi told Fars News on February 24.
The Iranian Admiral said that the new submarine-launched anti-ship missile was domestically developed within the framework of Jask-2 project. The missile is a variant of the Nasr-1 cruise missile.
According to experts, the Nasr-1 is in fact a copy of the Chinese-made C-704 anti-ship cruise missile. The missile has a range of 35km and it can be equipped with an active radar seeker or an electro-optical one. The Iranian Navy presented a land-launched variant of the missile during the “Velayat 90” drills in 2012. A year later, an air-launched variant was tested.
Nasr-1 anti-ship cruise missile, Photo by Mohammad Agah, Source: Tasnim News Agency
Submarine-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) are considered lethal as it is difficult to detect their launch. Only a handful of countries were able to develop this type of advanced weapon systems.
The Nasr-1’s range is short compared to most SLACMs. However, the ability to launch it from midget quiet submarines, such as the Qadir-class, makes it a real threat for Iran’s enemies in the Persian Gulf.
