Iran says warships coming to the Atlantic for 1st time

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Iranian warships will sail for the first time into Atlantic waters early in 2019, the deputy commander of Iran's navy has said.

The long-distance voyage would bring Iran's military forces closer to U.S. soil, and territorial waters, than they have been since the 1979 Islamic revolution which brought the current regime to power.

Iranian state-run broadcaster IRNA quoted deputy naval commander Admiral Touraj Hasnai Moqaddam as saying the "Iranian mission would take five months to complete" and would likely begin early in 2019.

He said one of the vessels in the flotilla would be a new Iranian destroyer, the Sahand, which IRNA described as "the most advanced destroyer of West Asia."

According to the Reuters news agency, Iran claims the Sahand has landing space for helicopters and is armed with anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles and electronic warfare capabilities.

IRNA claimed the new ship was "more advanced than its predecessor, Jamaran destroyer, with radar-evading capabilities."

Iran has threatened to send a flotilla into the western Atlantic, presumably to visit a friendly Latin American nation, such as Cuba, for years. The country's Navy chief said again in 2017 that it was a goal of the Islamic Republic.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-says-warships-coming-to-the-atlantic-for-1st-time/ar-BBRNUCA?li=BBnb4R7

[Botany]

1. Wow! They are going to send a destroyer into the Atlantic?

If we wanted to that ship and every other one in their flotilla would be skunk in 5 minutes.

[FBaggins]

5. It's ridiculous for them to even call it a destroyer

It's about 1/3 to 1/4 the size of a destroyer (specifically thinking of the four that we built for them in the 70s that now sail for Taiwan)

It would be generous to call it a frigate. It's really a beefed up corvette.

[Botany]

7. The Atlantic Fleet must be "shaking' in its boots"

We are way way way into bizarro times.

[msongs]

2. the oceans are open to all comers by treaty nt

[Fred Sanders]

3. So according to Western propaganda media it is a "threat" to sail a ship to Cuba? Idiotic and inept.

But scores of massive carriers, battleships, etc. Etc. All over the world by America is a threat to no one...Ya see. Just being neighbourly.

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. Battleships?

You mean like one of these?

[pecosbob]

9. Knee-jerk reactions to anything with 'Iran' in the title

People have been conditioned for so long to view Iran as our enemy that they can't see the real enemy right in front of them.

[pecosbob]

4. The Sunni seem to me to be a lot like the Republicans in the US...

a minority trying to enforce their will on the majority with time and demographics working against them. The Shiaa will emerge from oppression one day.

Not that they're aren't some real bad actors on their side, like Assad, but you can only shit on people for so long until they break.

[PufPuf23]

10. Not sure if I understand your post.

Ian is a Shia state. Assad is an Alawite which is a sect of Shia Islam.

The controlling Saud family in Saudi Arabia is Sunni (there is a Shia minority). Al Qaeda is Sunni.

[pecosbob]

15. I just meant in general in the region there are basically two alignments, Shia or Sunni

In general the Shia states (Iran, Syria and now Iraq) support each other and the rest are Sunni. My understanding is in most of the Sunni-controlled states there is a significant Shia minority or even a majority as was the case in Iraq that had been dominated by a Sunni ruling class for generations. Of course generalizations like this aren't always valid, but generally speaking, the Shia have been handed the shitty end of the stick for generations. In general the Sunni are responsible for most of the killing (Al Quaeda and Islamic State) although Iran supports Hezbollah and other groups. My convoluted way of saying that basically that IMO the Sunni are responsible for most of the problems in the region.

[Takket]

6. their flotila sould be completely ignored.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Wow. It's gray. It has a gun turret. But really. We've seen bigger billionaire yachts.

[Adrahil]

12. They call it a destroyer, but....

It's size and displacement are in line with a corvette.. the smallest type of warship. Hardly a threat. I'd be surprised if it has the legs to cross the Atlantic without underway refueling.

[krispos42]

13. It displaces maybe 2,500 tons

That's not very much. It's a guided-missile frigate.

It displaces a bit more than half of what the old Perry-class US Navy ships displaced.

[oberliner]

14. Is this the beginning of the war that the neocons are hoping for?