IRGC-N Shahid Mahdavi
Afloat Forward Staging Base?
Not to be outdone by the Iranian Navy, according to naval analyst H.I. Sutton the IRGC appears to have created a base ship of its own. New Iranian IRGC-N vessel, Shahid Mahdavi is a conversion of the 240 meter long cargo vessel Sarvin. This ship means the IRGC entering the high seas, whereas before this place was the mission of the navy fleet. The newly-renamed Shahid Mahdavi wears a coat of haze gray, she has new gun emplacements on the stern.
The construction of the Shahid Mahdavi provides the Guard a large, floating base from which to run the small, fast boats that largely make up its fleet designed to counter the U.S. Navy and other allied forces in the region. The purpose of building the large vessel "Shahid Mahdavi" near the Strait of Hormuz is the confrontation between the Revolutionary Guards and the US Navy and its allies in the region. The construction of this large vessel will enable the Coast Guard of the IRGC to use small fast boats Its fleet will be directed to counter the US Navy and other allied forces in the region.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, believed to be close to the Guard, described the vessel as a "mobile naval city" capable of "ensuring the security of Iran's trade lines, as well as the rights of Iranian sailors and fishermen in the high seas." Fars said "This range of new defense and combat innovations for the construction of heavy vessels, in line with the mass development of light vessels, and equipping them with various arrays can maintain Iran's authority over the Persian Gulf and the [Gulf] of Oman always in the face of transregional enemies".
"The Shahid Mahdavi looks like it will be configured to be an afloat forward staging base, to use the U.S. Navy term," said Michael Connell, an expert on Iran at the Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses. "The Puller was parked for many years in the Persian Gulf and the Iranian military witnessed its utility as a platform for expeditionary warfare and power projection."
Farzin Nadimi, an expert on Iran's military affairs, also told this news agency that the IRGC is looking beyond the Persian Gulf and the waters of the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea and the northern Indian Ocean by building the Martyr Mahdavi vessel. Perhaps the most well-known converted commercial ship is the former oil tanker Makran, which Iran converted into a warship. In 2022, the Makran and Sahand frigate of the Iranian Navy were deployed in the Atlantic Ocean for four months and traveled as far as the northern Baltic Sea.
The IRGC needs a dedicated power projection platform to serve as a base from which to rapidly deploy forces. This platform must be a self-sustaining forward operating base. Responding to attacks or identified threats is time sensitive and calls for a capability not constrained by the absence of host nation support and access denial strategies for land basing. For maximum effectiveness, the IRGC need a dedicated Naval vessel to serve as a rapidly deployable, self-contained forward operating base which allows freedom of action, surprise, flexibility, and interoperability, while not being constrained by absence of host nation support, overflight/basing rights, and access denial strategies.
An afloat forward staging base-variant of the mobile landing platform is designed to provide dedicated support for air mine countermeasures and special warfare missions. The ship is capable of executing additional missions including counter-piracy, maritime security, and humanitarian and disaster relief. The platform supports a variety of rotary wing aircraft.
In the United States, Joint Special Operations Task Forces (JSOTF) needed a dedicated Naval vessel to serve as a rapidly deployable, self-contained forward operating base which allows freedom of action, surprise, flexibility, and interoperability, while not being constrained by absence of host nation support, overflight/basing rights, and ever-increasing access denial strategies. The future vision is a JSOTF operating from a large vessel completely capable of supporting all requirements for long-duration operations, while providing a base with inherent Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection (AT/FP) capabilities; unhindered by land-based weather effects (if the vessel is being affected by bad weather -- move the vessel).
During Operation EARNEST WILL, the Iranian maritime forces which had destroyed, damaged, or harassed re-flagged oil tankers were effectively neutralized by a joint team of Army Task Force 160 helicopters and Navy fast patrol craft based aboard two large oil construction barges astride the sea lanes of the northern Persian Gulf. These two platforms, leased for the Department of Defense (DoD) by Brown and Root, were initially dismissed by the Navy establishment as a slapdash and hasty response to the requirement for sea control. The barges were in fact jury rigged to provide storage for fuel and ammunition, possessed rudimentary command and control suites, and had limited selfdefense capabilities. Despite the shortcomings of the barge bases, the tremendous advantages of operating SOF from maritime platforms were realized.
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