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Further Reading

Navy Bases

By 1976 the 6 major ports of Bandar-e Abbas, Bandar-e Shahpur, Chah Bahar (known as Bandar-e Beheshti after the 1979 Revolution), Bushehr, Abadan, and Khorramshahr had a capacity of 12 million tons, with expansion projects underway. By late 1977, unloading delays, which had caused serious issues in commerical transport through Iran's ports, were no longer a problem. As a result of war damage, the ports of Abadan and Khorramshahr were closed in 1980, leaving the other four main ports and twelve minor ports in operation.

By 1977 the bulk of the fleet was shifted from Khorramshahr to the newly completed base at Bandar-e Abbas, which became the new naval headquarters. Bushehr was the other main base. Smaller facilities were located at Khorramshahr, Khark Island, and Bandar-e Khomeini (formerly known as Bandar-e Shahpur). Bandar-e Anzali (formerly known as Bandar-e Pahlavi) was the home of the small Caspian fleet. Other facilities were being constructed, such as Bandar Beheshti (formerly Chah Bahar), construction of which had begun prior to 1979.

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iranian naval continued to use many of the existing naval facilities, expanding during the conflict and into the Tanker War mainly to offshore oil platforms, used as improvised forward operating bases. By the end of the conflict, international particiaption, primarily by the United States, had led to main of Iran's purpose built naval facilities and improvised bases suffering damage. Extensive repairs and expansions continued to be conduct throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s.