Fact Check: Does Iran Have One of the Strongest Militaries in the World?
June 16, 2023
Fact Check: Is Iran Among Top Six Countries in Water Technology?
June 16, 2023
A senior Iranian military official has claimed that Iran makes some of the fastest warships in the world, and that it is currently manufacturing faster military-grade vessels than the United States.
“Iran is one of the five countries in the world that has a fast watercrafts industry,” Commander Amir Rastegari, head of the Maritime Industries Organization of the Ministry of Defense, told Mehr News Agency on April 6, 2020. “By the will of God Almighty, today we crossed the 130 kilometers-per hour-threshold. There isn’t a speedboat in the world that can travel at more than 130 km/h at sea while carrying missiles and military radar systems. The Americans have boats with a maximum speed of 60 knots. This is about 105 km/h. And now we are testing a vessel that travels a top speed of 90 knots, or 170 km/h.”
But is Iran one of the world’s top five countries when it comes to producing high-speed warships? Which countries have the fastest ships and what are the maximum speeds? IranWire assesses and attempts to verify Commander Rastegari’s claims.
Iran’s High-Speed Watercrafts
The speedboat Commander Rastegari referred to in his interview with Mehr is the Saraj speedboat, which was built in 2009 and produced in 2018, when it was added to the Revolutionary Guards’ naval fleet. The vessel, which can reach a speed of 70 knots (130 km/h), is the result of the reverse engineering of a British racing boat called the Bladerunner, which is used in boat race competitions. It is essentially a lightweight high-speed boat.
Using the British boat as a basis, the Marine Industries Organization of the Ministry of Defense of Iran then produced the high-speed Saraj watercraft for military use, equipping it with a marine search radar with a range of about 30 kilometers, and an 11-tube 107-millimeter rocket launcher and giving it the capability of carrying 12.7 rounds of ammunition.
The Ministry of Defense’s Maritime Industries Organization is currently working to increase the speed of the boat to 170 km/h, and plans to unveil the vessel in either 2020 or 2021.
The organization also built the Fateh submarine in 2018, which is capable of traveling for 35 days at a depth of 200 meters at a speed of 20 km/h. Prior to this, the Maritime Industries built the Ghadir Submarine, which had fewer capabilities than the Fateh.
Iran and the Worldwide Warship Industry
The Global Fire Power website estimates that, in 2020, Iran’s military strength ranks 19 among 134 countries in terms of military power. “Iran has a total of 398 warships, comprising of 342 patrol boats, 34 submarines, eight mine hunters, seven frigates, and three corvettes. In terms of the number of warships, it ranks sixth among the 134 countries surveyed.”
The website ranks Iran second in patrol boats, with 342 units, and fifth in submarines, with 34 units, while when it comes to aircraft carriers and destroyers, Iran comes in last place, without any vessels of this category in its fleet. In fact, Iran’s high ranking in the index is due to the large number of speedboats it has.
It is noteworthy that none of the world’s top 10 military powers has made significant investments in speedboats in recent years. The number of speedboats patrolling the world’s top 10 military forces is as follows:
USA – 13
Japan – 6
China – 220
Russia – 41
South Korea- 11
France – 17
India – 139
UK- 22
Argentina – 11
Taiwan – 39
Meanwhile, the five countries with the most patrol speedboats in the world are North Korea, Iran, Colombia, Thailand, and China, respectively. Among the world’s top military powers, China is the only country with 220 speedboats. The rest of the world’s top military powers have spent their naval investment on ships, destroyers, warships, and submarines — not on buying or producing patrol speedboats.
The World’s Fastest Warship
The world’s fastest warship, the Skjold Class, is owned by Norway and is capable of moving at 60 knots, or 105 km/h. The US Navy is equipped with 19 Corvette Skjold Class, a powerful and high-speed warship.
Conclusion
Commander Amir Rastegari, head of the Maritime Industries Organization of the Ministry of Defense, claimed Iran was one of the five countries in the world that boasts a watercraft industry, and that it recently built a powerboat that could go speeds of 130 km/h.
After looking at the data available on subject, IranWire concluded:
1- Iran is the 19th most powerful army in the world and has the sixth largest navy in the world, with 342 speedboats, 34 submarines, eight mine hunters, seven frigates, and three corvettes, but it is deprived of cruisers and destroyers.
2- Iran is the second country in the world in terms of having the most speedboats, although the top 10 armies in the world have not made significant investments on speedboats, which shows that most navies do not prioritize the manufacture of these types of vessels, and possession of them does not help determine the strength of a navy in any decisive way. Among the world’s top 10 armies, China only has 220 speedboats, while the rest of the world’s naval powers own fewer.
3. Commander Rastegari claims the speed of Iran’s high-speed boat to be 130 km/h and says it is higher than the speed of US vessels: “The Americans have boats with a maximum speed of 60 knots, which is about 105 km/h,” he said. Figures available for US watercraft show that Rastegari has compared the speed of an Iranian speedboat to that of an American warship, and yet the speed of a US warship that tops 105 km/h is incomparable with that of an Iranian speedboat. In fact, he compares the speed of Iranian speedboats to the speed of American warships — a wrong analogy.
4- Iran’s speedboats are a copy of the British Bladerunner boat, which is a racing boat with a recreational-sports aspect.
5. Of the five countries (North Korea, Iran, Colombia, Thailand, and China) that have the most speedboats, only China’s army is among the top 10 armies in the world.
IranWire surveys show that Iran is capable of producing high-speed boats, and that Iran’s military is among the five countries that own the largest number of speedboats. However, claims that Iran’s fast watercraft industry is one of the top five in the world is misleading. Commander Rastegari has compared the speed of Iranian speedboats to the speed of American warships, referring to these boats as faster, but the Iranian-produced vessel is not considered to be among the top 10 high-speed warships in the world because it falls under the category of boats produced for military application, and cannot compete in a military capability with warships.
Therefore, IranWire concludes that Commander Rastegari’s remarks are not true* — and accordingly awards him badge for lying.
* Not true: Lying about a specific event or fact, or making a statement that has not been proven to be true, using existing facts and evidence.
You can find out more about our fact-checking methodology here.
