On November 27, 2023, the commissioning ceremony of the FFGH 78 Deylaman light frigate of the Mowj program (Jamaran type), built there at the Shahid Tamjidi Marine Industries Shipbuilding Enterprise (STMI) of the Marine Industries Organization (MIO), was held at the Bender-Enzeli Naval base on the coast of Iran on the Caspian Sea.), which is part of the Ministry of Defense and Support of the Armed Forces of Iran. Deylaman has become the largest warship of the Iranian Navy in the Caspian Sea.
The new light frigate FFGH 78 Deylaman of the Mowj program (Jamaran type) introduced into the Iranian Navy in the Caspian Sea, Bender-Enzeli, 27.11.2023 (c) Mohammadreza Alimadadi / IRNA
The Jamaran-type frigates under construction in Iran of the national Mowj program (or Moudge, - The Wave),, are actually modified and simplified copies of small frigates of the British export project Vosper Mk 5 developed in the sixties, four units of which were built in the UK under a 1965 contract for the Shah's Iranian Navy as the Saam type (Alvand) with commissioning in the early 1970s. Three of the Vosper Mk 5 frigates form the core of the surface forces of the Iranian Navy to the present (the fourth Sahand was sunk by the Americans in 1988). The Mowj (Moudge) program for the development of an Iranian replica of these ships was launched in 1997, and the lead Iranian frigate FFGH 76 Jamaran was started by construction at the Iranian Navy Naval Shipyard (Nadaja) in Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf coast around 2001. Jamaran was launched on November 28, 2007 and transferred to the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf on February 19, 2010.
On February 23, 2007, the construction of the second FFGH 77 Velayat frigate was launched at the STMI enterprise in Bandar-Enzeli in the Caspian Sea, which was launched on March 17, 2013, then renamed Damavand and entered service on March 9, 2015, becoming the largest Iranian combat unit in the Caspian Sea. However, on January 10, 2018, the FFGH 77 Damavand frigate was thrown by a storm onto the breakwater at the entrance to Bender-Enzeli and by the end of January 2018 was completely destroyed.
Instead of the one lost at the STMI enterprise in Bender-Enzeli, the construction of a similar frigate was started for the Iranian Navy in the Caspian Sea, which initially inherited the tail number and name of the deceased (FFGH 77 Damavand), but as a result, after the start of factory sea trials in 2023, it was renamed FFGH 78 Deylaman and is now commissioned. The name Deylaman ("Deylaman"), like other Iranian frigates, is given in honor of mountains or mountainous areas, in this case, the mountainous region of Deylaman \Deyleman\Deylem in the southern Caspian.
To date, two more frigates of the Mowj program have been introduced into the Iranian Navy in the Persian Gulf. The FFGH 74 Sahand frigate, which inherited the name and tail number of the frigate that was lost in 1988, was built and commissioned into the Iranian Navy on November 28, 2018 at the Iranian Navy Shipyard (Nadaja) in Bandar Abbas. The FFGH 75 Dena frigate was built on June 13, 2021 and commissioned at the Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex Co (ISOICO, also known as Bostanu Shipyard) in Bandar Shahid Rejaya near Bandar Abbas. In fact, all the built ships of the Mowj program have differences from each other.
At the stage of construction at Iranian shipyards on the Persian Gulf coast there are two more frigates of this type, which have turned into long-term construction. A frigate is being built at the Iranian Navy's naval shipyard (Nadaja) in Bandar Abbas, which was launched in 2016 under the name Talaieh, but has not yet been commissioned. On December 5, 2021, this ship capsized in the dry dock of the shipyard and is now under restoration, having been renamed Shiraz or Zagros. In addition, the Taftan frigate has been under construction since 2017 at ISOICO (Bostanu Shipyard) in Bandar Shahid-Rejaya. The hulls of the Dena and Taftan frigates completed at ISOICO were built at the Shahid Mousavi Industries shipyard of the MIO association in Khorramshahr. There is information about the construction of another (eighth) ship in Iran.
It should be noted that in the Iranian Navy, ships of the Saam (Alvand) and Jamaran types are traditionally officially classified as "destroyers" (literally, "destroyer", an analogue of the term "destroyer", in the Shah's Navy, ships of the Saam type originally carried side numbers with the prefix "DE" - "destroyer escort" - "escort destroyers").
The frigates of the Mowj program have a total displacement of more than 1,500 tons, a length of 95 m and a width of 11.1 m. As for the FFGH 78 Deylaman frigate, part of the armament has not yet been installed on it. Judging by the photos of its official model, its armament should include eight Qader or Hoveyzeh anti-ship missiles, four Sayyad-3 medium- and long-range Mehrab anti-aircraft missiles (not yet installed), an eight-shot vertical launcher of short- or medium-range SAM (possibly Nawab) (not yet installed), 76 mm artillery the Fajr 27 installation (a copy of the Leonardo/Oto Melara Compact installation), a 30-mm Kamand six-barrel artillery installation (a copy of the AK-630), two 23-mm single-barrel artillery installations, two 12.7-mm machine guns, two three-tube torpedo tubes for 324-mm anti-submarine torpedoes (production of Azhdar's own torpedoes is announced). The ship is equipped with a platform for a medium helicopter. The new Iranian-designed Cheshm Oghab multifunctional radar system is housed in an integrated mast, although it is unclear whether it is actually installed.
At the commissioning ceremony of the frigate, the Chamrosh-4 reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle for vertical takeoff and landing and the launchers of the new Shahin-1 barrage ammunition were also demonstrated on it.
Photo from a colleague imp_navigator :
The official model of the ship with full design armament:
Video:
