Here's All That's Left Of Iranian Navy Ship Struck By Missile In Friendly Fire Traged

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Here's All That's Left Of Iranian Navy Ship Struck By Missile In Friendly Fire Tragedy
By: Tyler Rogoway - The Drive News - 05-11-20
Re: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...y-fire-tragedy

The naval support ship was laying targets for a training exercise when an anti-ship missile fired from an Iranian frigate slammed into it. Killing 19 personnel on board.

Photo link" https://the-drive-3.imgix.net/https%...xlib=js-1.4.1&

Details still remain limited at this time, but what we know is that an Iranian live-fire naval training event went horribly wrong in the Gulf of Oman when one of the country's own naval vessels was struck by an anti-ship cruise missile on Sunday. The mistake has killed at least 19 and wounded 15 Iranian sailors. A support ship named Konarak was placing targets for other ships to use for the exercise when the missile, a C-802 Noor, made a direct hit on the vessel.

Images show the vessel's entire upper structure obliterated by the inadvertent strike.

2nd photo link: https://the-drive-2.imgix.net/https%...xlib=js-1.4.1&

3rd photo link: https://the-drive-3.imgix.net/https%...xlib=js-1.4.1&

Below is what the Konarak looked like in better days. Note the ship can be equipped with drones and its own anti-ship missiles. Iran often bolts on these types of modular capabilities to auxiliary craft for testing and to increase its number of missionized hulls as it sees fit.

The launching warship is said to have been the Moudge class frigate Jamaran. The ship, which was put into service just a decade ago, is one of Iran's most advanced surface combatants and packs a quartet of C-802 Noors, which is a derivative of the highly common YJ-83 Chinese radar-guided anti-ship missiles with a range of roughly 65 miles.

The incident took place near the port city of Jask, in the upper Gulf of Oman, not far from the tumultuous Strait of Hormuz. The waters off Jask have been the site of a number of violent events over the last year, including the shooting down of a U.S. Global Hawk drone and limpet mine attacks on tankers vessels.

The 155-foot long Konarak was built by the Netherlands and has been operating since the late 1980s. The ship was towed to port after the missile strike, but as you can see in the images, fire laid waste to everything but its hull.

This incident is somewhat unique because of the headlines it is making. Such embarrassing tragedies are not something the Iranian military is keen to highlight and it is the second known major Iranian friendly fire incident just this year. On January 8th, 2020, an Iranian air defense battery shot down Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752, a Boeing 737-800 with 176 souls on board, not long after a ballistic missile barrage on U.S. forces in Iran.

Accidents with anti-ship missiles, which often operate autonomously after being launched, are not unheard of, but a mistake like this occurring in such a tense and densely armed region could light-off a major conflict before it can be stopped.

We will continue to update this story as more information comes available.

Update: 2:51AM PST—

Here is what the ship looked like when vessels were able to approach it. Absolutely catastrophic damage done to this ship by the C-802 and its after-effects. It must have been horrific for those aboard that survived:

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Personal note: Looks like somebody's head will be on the block for this screw up.

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