Shahid Soleimani-class corvette
The Shahid Soleimani class are the principal surface combatant ship of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy of Iran. These are an Iranian class of missile corvettes and bear the name of Qasem Soleimani, a prominent Iranian military officer, who was the commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force from 1998, until he was assassinated on 3 January 2020 by the United States in Baghdad, Iraq alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. These ships were being built by various shipyards in Bushehr, Qeshm and Bandar Abbas and are operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy of Iran.
Design
Hull
These ships are known for their unique catamaran design with sharp angles to give it a more stealthy design. The design has been compared to the Chinese Type 22 missile boat and the Taiwanese. According to Iranian officials, these warship's have hulls that are made of aluminum instead of the regular steel which decreases their weight. The use of aluminum is an innovation in the Iranian shipbuilding industry, adopted in the past few years.Armament
These warships are equipped with six anti-ship cruise missiles including four long-range ones and two short-range anti-ship missiles in an order of two long-range and one short-range box launchers on each side behind the superstructure. These warships are the first Iranian warship to be equipped with a vertical launching system. The VLS armament component includes six bigger cells for surface-to-surface cruise missiles and 16 smaller ones for surface-to-air missiles, all of which are located behind the command bridge.The lead warship, Shahid Soleimani, is equipped with six 23 mm gatling guns, one 30 mm auto-canon and two chaff dispensers. These are also incorporated in other warships of the class. According to Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, Shahid Soleimani-class vessels have been equipped with different types of missiles with varied ranges of 200, 300 and 750 kilometers respectively, as well as with a new 2,000-kilometer-range cruise missile named Ghadr-474, to boost their firepower. Tangsiri later said that Sayyad Shirazi and Hassan Baqeri, the other two warships of the class currently in service have been equipped with 16 Navvab vertically-launched missiles and 6 Sayyad-3 missiles.