Iran claims longer range submarine missile

Iran has developed a longer-range version of its Jask-2 submarine-launched anti-ship missile, according to Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, the commander of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy (IRIN).

“Today, the Jask-2 missile’s range is longer than the prototype’s,” he said in a 13 September television interview, according to the Fars News Agency. He did not give a figure for the new range.

Rear Adm Khanzadi was speaking after the ‘Zolfaghar 99’ maritime exercise, during which a missile was seen being launched from below the surface. The Mehr News Agency reported that it was launched by a Ghadir-class midget submarine, a type with two 533 mm torpedo tubes.

The first sub-surface missile launch shown by Iran in February 2017 appeared to be a failure, while a second seemingly successful launch was shown in February 2019.

Rear Adm Khanzadi said the Jask-2 can be carried by Iran’s indigenously developed Fateh (920) submarine, which participated in ‘Zolfaghar 99’, its first exercise since it was commissioned by the IRIN in February 2019.