Pictures of the dead crew were also published, as well as messages of condolences from senior figures in the armed forces, including the Revolutionary Guards. The still burning Konarak was towed into the nearby port of Chabahar, and photos showed its superstructure including its command bridge destroyed. Alternatively, it could have been a targeting mistake from the Jamaran crew. It is not known how the Konarak was hit but the Jamaran may have locked on to it as the closest and largest vessel it encountered when it turned on the radar for final target-acquisition of the Nour anti-ship missile. The navy’s public relations department expressed its condolences to the families of the dead but also emphasised the defensive readiness and what it described as martyrdom-seeking spirit of the naval staff. Iran was relatively swift to admit the scale of the mistake, following criticism of the Revolutionary Guards, including by senior politicians up to the level of the president, Hassan Rouhani, for initially trying to cover up that its forces had fired on the Ukrainian jet. Iranian state sources quoting a local hospital spokesman initially said only one sailor had been killed and two injured severely, but the number of deaths rapidly escalated later on Monday. The incident happened near the port of Jask, state TV said. Security forces have also been accused of deliberately shooting hundreds of Iranians in November protesting over a petrol price rise.Ī report on state TV said the Konarak was struck “after moving a practice target to its destination and not creating enough distance between itself and the target”. RQ-4A Global Hawk drone June 2019 worked, too.The incident is another severe blow to the prestige of the Iranian military still recovering from its unintentional attack on a Ukrainian civilian aircraft departing from Tehran on 8 January, which killed all 176 people onboard. The missile Iran used to shoot down a U.S. The Noor missile struck the Konarak exactly where it was supposed to, just above the waterline, to devastating effect. Navy’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile can discriminate between targets and pick out the correct one, but that requires an imaging capability and microprocessing power that older designs like Exocet and Noor don’t have.Īlthough a tragic accident, the Konarak sinking makes one thing clear to the rest of the world: While Iran occasionally fibs about its military capabilities, particularly new tanks, surface to air missiles, and fighter jets, many of its homemade weapons systems really do work. In the 2005 attack on the Hanit, a second missile aimed at the Israeli warship hit a Cambodian registered cargo ship. This isn't the first time radar-guided anti-ship missiles have hit the wrong target.Ī similar situation occurred in 1987, when an Iraqi Exocet missile accidentally struck the U.S. USS Stark after being hit by two Iraqi Exocet anti-ship missiles, 1987. This leaves open the possibility the missile could pick up and home in on the wrong target, which is what happened to the Konarak. If the launching ship is over the radar horizon from the target ship, the missile must pick up the target on its own. Once launched from the Jamaran, the missile flies in the direction of the target ship, pinging away with its radar. The Noor is a radar-guided missile, meaning it has a complete radar system in the nose. Iran’s explanation for the incident-which it quickly offered-is plausible. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Mason was attacked by Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels using what were probably Noor misiles. A similar missile seriously damaged the Israeli Navy ship Hanit in 2005. The subsonic missile, which cruises just above the wave tops to evade radar, has a 74-mile range and a 363-pound warhead. Noor is an Iranian copy of China’s C-802 anti-ship missile and is similar to the French Exocet and American AGM-84 Harpoon. The missile involved was reportedly a Noor anti-ship cruise missile.
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