Commander: Iranian navy to build unmanned submarines

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced on Tuesday that Iran plans to build unmanned submarines to protect the country's territorial waters. "This issue is on our agenda like other issues and cases," Sayyari told FNA when asked if the Iranian Navy has plans to build unmanned submarines and other types of unmanned underwater vehicles. He didn’t provide any further details on the project. In relevant remarks in September, Sayyari announced that the Navy's new home-made submarine, Fateh, will be launched this year. "Based on the Navy's plans, the Fateh submarine will be launched this year (i.e. the Iranian year March 2013-March 2014)," Sayyari told reporters in Tehran. Sayyari had earlier this year informed of the country's plan for unveiling the new submarine. “Fateh submarine, Kaman-class missile-launcher warships and Jamaran 2 destroyer will come into operation in the current year,” he told reporters. In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems. In September 2012, the Iranian Navy officially launched a heavy submarine after the subsurface vessel was overhauled by the country's experts. Tareq 901 submarine was launched in Iran's Southern port city of Bandar Abbas at the order of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Commander in Chief Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. In May 2012, Sayyari lauded Iranian experts' success in repairing heavy submarines, saying their outstanding capabilities and mastery of the hi-tech used in naval vessels display the failure of enemy sanctions and pressures. He said the submarine, called Tareq, is now fully ready to be dispatched to the high seas. He pointed to the Supreme Leader's alarming remarks that enemies are trying to display Iranians as an incapable nation, and said, "Today we show that 'We can', and that our ability is way beyond the enemy's imaginations." In 2011, the Iranian Navy's Tareq-class submarine, 'Younus', managed to set a new record in sailing the international waters and high seas for 68 days. Iran's Younus submarine, sailing alongside warships of the 14th fleet of the Iranian Navy, returned home in early June 2011 following an over two-month-long mission in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The deployment of the Iranian submarine in the Red Sea was the first such operation by the country's Navy in far-off waters. The Iranian Navy dispatched its 27th flotilla of warships to the high seas in August to protect the country's cargo ships and oil tankers against pirates. The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen. According to UN Security Council resolutions, different countries can send their warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates. The Gulf of Aden - which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea - is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.