Iran Soleimani Class Warships: What are Iran’s Soleimani-class catamaran warships that the US has destroyed

The United States on Thursday said it has destroyed all four of Iran’s Soleimani-class catamaran warships, a significant blow to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) as the ongoing war between the US, Israel and Iran shows no signs of abating.

“The United States on Thursday said it has destroyed all four of Iran’s Soleimani-class catamaran warships, a significant blow to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) as the ongoing war between the US, Israel and Iran shows no signs of abating”

The Times of India

Footage reviewed by The War Zone shows the Shahid Sayyad Shirazi (FS313-03), another ship in the class, on fire after being struck by a US Navy torpedo, the first torpedo kill by the US since World War II.

The Times of India

Smoke and missile launch trails are visible in the footage, though it is unclear whether the vessel attempted to retaliate.

Earlier US strikes on Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main naval base on the Strait of Hormuz, appear to have also destroyed other Soleimani-class corvettes, two frigates, and a Kilo-class submarine, further degrading Iran’s naval capabilities.

The first vessel in the class, Shahid Soleimani, was commissioned in 2022 and named after the late IRGC General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

Iran has a history of naming weapons systems after Soleimani, and the warship was formally unveiled in Bandar Abbas, Iran’s southern port city.

The Times of India

Shahid Soleimani was constructed at the Shahid Mahallati Shipyard in Bushehr, and satellite imagery of its early construction emerged in March 2022.

Its predecessor, the Shahid Nazeri, commissioned in 2016, also featured a catamaran hull, but the new vessel was larger, more robust, and designed to carry heavier armaments, according to The War Zone.

The Soleimani-class ships are catamaran-style warships with two parallel hulls for stability, speed, and maneuverability in littoral environments, and Iranian media described Shahid Soleimani as incorporating “radar-evading” or stealth-like design features though independent verification of these claims is limited.

“The United States on Thursday said it has destroyed all four of Iran’s Soleimani-class catamaran warships, a significant blow to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) as the ongoing war between the US, Israel and Iran shows no signs of abating”

The Times of India

The vessel is equipped with four domestically developed engines, allowing quick deployment and extended endurance at sea, and its larger hull compared to Shahid Nazeri allows it to carry helicopters and fast-attack boats from a stern ramp, acting as a command-and-control platform for coordinating smaller IRGCN vessels and unmanned systems.

According to Iranian media PressTV, Shahid Soleimani was the first IRGCN ship to feature a vertical launch system (VLS), with six VLS cells visible in aerial photos and additional covered areas possibly containing more missiles, and Iranian reports claim the VLS can fire surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) with a range of about 93 miles, potentially aligning with upgraded Sayyad SAM variants, reported TWZ.

Other reported weaponry includes four Ghadir anti-ship cruise missiles and two smaller Nasr-type anti-ship missiles, a single 30 mm autocannon with electro-optical targeting, four 20 mm rotary cannons possibly remotely operated, the capacity to launch helicopters and vertical take-off drones from a large flight deck, and electronic warfare, reconnaissance, and communications systems claimed to aid situational awareness and self-protection.

Then Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, told PressTV: “This is the Islamic Republic of Iran’s first domestically-developed warship which is equipped with the vertical launch, short-range and medium-range air defense systems.

The ship’s combat system is powered by indigenous software designed with the ability to detect different types of targets and assign them to the ship’s weapons.”

Soleimani-class corvettes were primarily designed for coastal combat and asymmetric warfare, protecting and coordinating smaller IRGCN speedboats in the Persian Gulf and serving as floating command hubs that extended Iran’s reach and provided enhanced firepower compared to the IRGCN’s smaller vessels.

Their ability to operate in shallow waters and near ports gave them a littoral strike function, and their capacity to carry fast-attack boats and drones increased their versatility in coordinating swarm tactics, an IRGCN hallmark in past close encounters with US naval forces.

The Times of India

The destruction of the Soleimani-class warships represents a major setback for the IRGCN because these vessels combined surface-to-air and anti-ship missile systems, helicopters, drones, and command-and-control capabilities, and their loss reduces Iran’s ability to operate in the Persian Gulf with coordinated naval assets while weakening its asymmetric maritime strategy.

While their operational effectiveness in combat has been debated, the Soleimani-class ships were symbols of Iran’s efforts to enhance its naval power and challenge US and allied forces in the Gulf, and their destruction reflects the rapid escalation of conflict and the vulnerability of even the most advanced IRGCN assets in the face of US strikes.