The Shahid Mahdavi vessel crossed the equator and entered the Southern Hemisphere on Could 4, 2024, Dryad International highlighted in its newest Maritime Safety Menace Advisory (MSTA), which was revealed this week.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy instructions the Shahid Mahdavi, Dryad identified within the MSTA, including that it’s a “transformed warship geared up with helicopters, fight drones, and quick assault craft”.
“That is the primary time an Iranian warship has traveled to the southern hemisphere on this capability. The transformed container ship is outfitted with long-range ballistic and cruise missiles for long-range operations,” Dryad mentioned within the MSTA.
“Iran’s naval presence in worldwide waters and on the excessive seas has elevated considerably as a part of a method to undertaking energy past its territorial waters,” it added.
“The Shahid Mahdavi efficiently launched ballistic missiles in February 2024. This operation has strategic and geopolitical implications, with the potential to shift the regional energy stability. It demonstrates Iran’s means to undertaking energy over lengthy distances, which might deter potential adversaries,” it continued.
Within the MSTA, Dryad mentioned the mission demonstrates Iran’s willingness to make use of its naval capabilities to guard its pursuits and assert its affect within the area, “probably altering different powers’ strategic calculus, together with the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia”.
Dryad warned within the report that the Shahid Mahdavi might probably disrupt business delivery, “significantly in assist of the Houthis”.
“The vessel has participated within the launch of ballistic missiles and might transport quite a lot of assault drones and helicopters that could possibly be used for Houthi missions,” Dryad mentioned within the MSTA.
“The Houthis have a historical past of attacking business delivery within the area, and the presence of the Shahid Mahdavi in southern hemisphere waters suggests a doable function in these assaults,” it added.
In a flash transient posted on the Basis for Protection of Democracies (FDD) web site this week, Bradley Bowman, the Senior Director of FDD’s Middle on Army and Political Energy, mentioned, “we’ve seen Iranian warships within the area earlier than”.
“The Shahid Mahdavi just isn’t precisely probably the most spectacular vessel to ever sail the excessive seas, however its reported presence within the southern hemisphere is a tangible image of Tehran’s continued willpower to sow insecurity past the Center East,” he added.
FDD Senior Fellow Behnam Ben Taleblu mentioned within the flash transient, “since 2021, Iran has been working to show service provider vessels into long-range strike platforms that reach the space of its present drone, cruise missile, and ballistic missile arsenals”.
“The Shahid Mahdavi is a minimum of the second such vessel to endure such a transition and is actually not going to be the final. Simply as Tehran innovated with respect to its missile mastery to make up for a scarcity of manned plane, it’s now looking for unconventional technique of projecting standard energy at sea,” he added.
FDD describes itself as a Washington, DC-based nonpartisan 501(c)(3) analysis institute specializing in nationwide safety and international coverage. Dryad International focuses on maritime area intelligence. It describes its weekly MSTA as “a fantastic place to seize the worldwide maritime safety scenario”.
In a earlier MSTA launched on April 22, Dryad mentioned current stories point out that Iran intends to disrupt operations within the Strait of Hormuz.
“The latest incident, the seizure of the MSC Aries, demonstrates that Iran, regardless of being preoccupied with missile operations towards Israel, continues to interdict and management vessel motion within the Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf, and Arabian Sea,” Dryad famous in that MSTA.
“Whereas Iran has repeatedly acknowledged that it has the potential to close down the choke level, doing so has appeared unfavorable as a result of it could enrage its neighboring Arab nations,” it added.
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