Iran Launches Destroyer in the Caspian Sea

[Purveyor]

By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran March 17, 2013 (AP)

Iranian on Sunday launched its domestically built destroyer in the Caspian Sea, the nation's first heavy military presence in the oil-rich sea, state TV reported.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the guided-missile destroyer Jamaran-2 in the port city of Anzali, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Tehran.

After final tests, the report said, Jamaran-2 will join Iran's naval fleet in the sea in coming months.

The 1,400-ton destroyer, which has a helicopter landing pad, is 94 meters (yards) long and can cruise at 30 knots. It is equipped to surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles as well as anti-aircraft batteries and sophisticated radar and communications terminals, the report said.

MORE...

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iran-launches-destroyer-caspian-sea-18748397

[Archae]

1. And if there is a war, will be their first submarine...

[TheBlackAdder]

2. Beat me to it. I was going to say "But it wasn't supposed to be a submarine!" nt

[Purveyor]

3. Yeah. Iran will be another 'cakewalk'...indeed! /sarcasm off eom

[Archae]

9. Beating Iran's military would be a "cakewalk"

Comparatively speaking.

But like in Iraq, the insurgents would make life total hell for the troops.

[Purveyor]

10. It would be folly to compare the Iranian military with Iraqs considering Iran watched what

happened in Iraq and have been preparing for the last 10 years.

Of course we can all pump up our peckers and wag our 'nukes' about...

[stevenleser]

14. That's like a puppy watching Mac trucks after a sibling was squashed. It will not help.

The Iraqi Army, Air Force and Navy would completely cease to exist within 10-21 days after the beginning of any conflict.

That isn't chest thumping or any other metaphor you intend to use. It's a realistic comparison of our two military's. What else would you expect, we spend nearly as much on our military as the rest of the world combined.

The brief battle between the US Military and the Iranian military isn't the real military problem. It's the insurgency and hostile populace that would be many times worse than Iraq and Iraq was horrific.

[Brother Buzz]

11. It could be a cakewalk if we learned anything from General Van Riper's

Millennium Challenge 2002 war game surprise.

Many war games are scripted—that is, both Red and Blue officers are required to perform certain attacks and responses. A smaller number are "free play," which means anything goes. Controversy erupted over Millennium Challenge 2002 when the Red forces, commanded by a retired Marine general named Paul Van Riper, engaged in some clever free play tricks that deviated from what the Blues were expecting. Van Riper used virtual motorcycle messengers to relay orders to his virtual field commanders, for example, thereby negating the Americans'—er, Blue force's—ability to eavesdrop. Mere days into the game, a squad of Red digital soldiers had sunk several Blue ships in the Persian Gulf by carrying out suicide attacks with explosives-laden speedboats. That's not in the script, countered the referees, who ordered the Blue fleet to be magically resurrected.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2002/09/how_do_the_pentagons_war_games_work.html

[1-Old-Man]

4. Well, I guess we should be afraid, very very afraid.

Wasn't it the Falkens War that showed Destroyers to be basically worthless? I wonder how long it would take one of our subs to put it on the bottom at exactly the same time I presume that we have a sub tailing that boat every inch of the sea it travels.

[hobbit709]

7. The British destroyers had aluminum superstructures-they burned easy.

And I'd like to see one of our subs get into a landlocked sea.

[Rex]

5. Good thing it has a landing pad.

[Lurks Often]

6. Iran can call it whatever it wants, but it isn't a destroyer by modern standards,

given it's size at 1400 tons, it would be considered a corvette.

1400 tons would have been considered a very small destroyer even in 1939.

[Rex]

8. Oh come on now, let them have their destroyer.

Hell, let them waste a lot of money on those things. Maybe they will get stupid and go broke. I have no doubt some other country would love to profit on their warlust.

[Posteritatis]

13. Most countries fielding ships in that range call them corvettes or frigates

It's somewhere in between the two sizewise, anyway. Iran calls them destroyers (or destroyer escorts), but pretty much everyone else describes them as frigates.

I hadn't considered the idea of any substantial naval presence in the Caspian, though I suppose that makes sense with smaller ships like that.

[LeftInTX]

12. The Caspian Sea?

Tug of war over oil in the Caucus?

[HereSince1628]

16. I immediately thought a likely MX missle platform...

mobility makes targeting a launch site a bit harder...not hard enough to keep advanced technology from hitting it, but harder.

[stevenleser]

15. I cannot imagine Russia liking that at all. nt