Iran to unveil new overhauled warship soon

The Iranian Navy announced on Sunday that it will soon unveil and launch its overhauled warship named Lavan in the country's territorial waters in the near future. "The Islamic Republic of Iran's warship (named) Lavan which has been overhauled will be unveiled soon," Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said in a press conference in Tehran today. He said that the overhauled warship may be unveiled in the Sacred Defense Week (late September), commemorating Iranians' sacrifices during the 8 years of the Iraqi imposed war on Iran in 1980s. Iran in June launched its overhauled and modernized destroyer named Bayandor in the Southern waters of the country in the presence of Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi and Rear Admiral Sayyari. Army officials said the Iranian Navy's power of safeguarding the country's territorial waters as well as maintaining security in regional and international waters will increase after the launch of Bayandor. Overhauling the main engines, heat exchangers and fuel and oil systems as well as optimizing the monitoring control systems are among the measures adopted before launching the destroyer. In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems. Iran's first home-made destroyer, Jamaran, was launched in late February 2010. The Mowdge Class vessel has a displacement of around 14,000 tons and is equipped with modern radars and electronic warfare capabilities and is armed with a variety of anti-ship, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles. Iranian defense ministry officials had said earlier that the third generation of the home-made vessel, Jamaran-3 destroyer, will come into operation by the end of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2013 - March 20, 2014).