A Look at Iran’s First Ever Aircraft Carrier: Shahid Bagheri Promises to Expand Reach of Stealth Drone Fleet

Iranian media has published the first clear footage of the country’s first aircraft carrier, the Shahid Bagheri, which is set to facilitate forward drone operations by the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Referred to as a “forward base ship,” the warship features an angled flight deck and ski jump launch system similar to those on Russian Kuznetsov Class and British Queen Elizabeth Class carriers. Iran has been able to built the carrier on a very low budget by converting a commercial container ship, the Perarin, into a carrier. A second container ship is also expected to be converted into a drone operating platform, which will be designated the Shahid Mahdavi. The use of converted container ships imposes serious limitations on performance compared to purpose built aircraft carriers, in particular in terms of their ability to take damage in combat, although for drone operations without any manned aviation components this approach appears to be considered sufficient. 

The Iranian government notably previously considered acquisition of British Invincible Class carriers in the 1970s alongside Harrier jump jets as part of efforts to expand the Navy’s power projection capabilities. The overthrow of the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1979, however, resulted in deep cuts to defence spending. In more recent decades the Revolutionary Guard Corps, rather than the Navy, has been primarily responsible for power projection abroad, with drone operations playing a significant role in campaigns across the Middle East most notably in supporting counterinsurgency operations in Syria alongside Syrian and Russian forces. The possibility of the Corps deploying larger drone carriers is particularly significant due to the sophistication of the drones in its fleet, which include advanced stealth designs which have been extensively combat tested in both reconnaissance and strike roles. One of the most notable was a reconnaissance operation into Israeli airspace in 2018, where a Saegheh stealth drone’s radar evading capabilities allowed it to evade multiple shootdown attempts by Israeli Patriot air defence systems. If deployed from carriers, the long ranges of these stealth drones could facilitate surprise attacks from unexpected directions and against targets much further afield.

A key weakness of Iran’s new carriers remains the country’s lack of modern surface combat ships such as frigates or destroyers, which leaves them potentially highly vulnerable to air and missile strikes by adversaries. Other navies such as China and the United States rely on destroyers to protect their carriers with multi-layered air defences. Nevertheless, against non-state targets the Iranian ships have the potential to be highly potent. Iranian drones deployed from carriers could play important roles supporting friendly governments such as Syria and Sudan to counter Western, Turkish or Israeli-backed insurgent groups, and could even be deployed for joint exercises with local navies or air fleets. Iranian stealth drones have in the past also been used to supply friendly forces from the air, including Palestinian militia groups in the Gaza Strip, with the new carriers potentially expanding the Revolutionary Guard Corps’ options to do so. The possibility also remains that the Shahid Bagheri and Shahid Mahdavi could be intended largely to provide the Revolutionary Guard Corps with experience in fixed wing carrier operations until the country’s shipbuilding industry further matures to allow the service to field purpose built carriers in future.