Iran’s Container Ship Converted Into Drone-Armed Vessel

The “Splash” website reported on an Iranian container ship that has been converted into a ready-to-fire drone carrier.

According to the “Splash” website, an Iranian container ship named “Shahid Bagheri” has been converted into a drone carrier ready to target ships in the Arabian Sea, located south of the Gulf of Oman.

A tanker tracking group led by “Samir Madani” had initiated investigations that, based on satellite imagery recorded by Planet Labs over the past 10 days, revealed information about the conversion of this container ship, which is classified as a cargo vessel.

Samir Madani, who has closely tracked Iranian ships over the past six years, said: “We predict that the Bagheri drone carrier will ultimately threaten commercial ships in the Arabian Sea and along the route to India.”

Iran received the mentioned vessel in 2000 from Hyundai Heavy Industries, which was recently converted at the ISOICO shipbuilding facility west of Bandar Abbas and placed under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Additionally, after converting the container ship “Shahid Bagheri” into a drone carrier, the Guard Corps increased its deck height, resulting in a width of 170 meters that has been transformed into a flight deck.

The width of this deck is sufficient to enable the takeoff and landing of very large “long-range” drones. “Alireza Tangsiri,” commander of the Naval Force of the Guard Corps, also stated regarding this drone carrier ship that this vessel is equipped with helicopters, missiles, and drones.

Tangsiri also announced in mid-December: “The main mission of the Guard Corps’ naval force is to use these vessels in the Persian Gulf, but outside the designated mission scope of the Army’s naval force in the Gulf of Oman, it cooperates and coordinates with this force.”

It should be noted that Houthi quasi-military groups, with the support of the Islamic Republic, in support of Palestine in the Israel-Hamas war, have conducted missile and drone attacks on 35 commercial ships, with recent reports also circulating about the Islamic Republic’s hardware and intelligence assistance to the Houthis for attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea.

“Brad Cooper,” commander of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, while referring to recent attacks on commercial ships in the Middle East and the Red Sea, emphasized the financing, training, and arming of Houthi quasi-military groups by the Islamic Republic, and openly stated: “The Islamic Republic is very directly involved in the attacks by Yemen’s Shia Houthis on ships.”

He described the recent attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea and the Middle East as the worst attacks since the tanker war.