The 311-foot-long was at a dock in the port of Bandar Abbas
when it “lost its balance” after water leaked into its tanks, according to a
report from the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
A photo from the semi-official Tasnim News Agency showed the
warship, with a displacement of about 2,000 tons, resting on its left side in
the Bandar Abbas port.
The ship, which Tasnim said entered service in December
2018, is one of the bigger vessels in Iran’s fleet, equipped with antiship cruise
missiles and an electronic warfare system.
Naval analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain, said
it would take Iran four to six months to repair the ship once it can be
refloated.
“Seawater severely damages electronics and gets into everything. So, all
electronics will have to be removed and chemically cleaned to remove the salt,”
he said.
It also affects mechanical parts, which could lead to engine
failure if the parts are not thoroughly cleaned, he added.
“Salt encrustation destroys piston linings and turbine
blades and interferes with combustion so if they take short cuts to get that
ship back into service, they will pay a heavy price for doing so,” Schuster
said.
Ships like the Sahand tend to have a lot of “top hamper,”
weight from electronics and weapons above their center of gravity, Schuster
said.
If lower fuel tanks are emptied, something prudent during a
repair process, the higher up weight should have been removed to keep the ship
in balance, he said.
“Otherwise, you risk capsizing the ship, particularly if
there are high winds,” he said.
Schuster said the photo released by Tasnim suggests the ship
rolled over quickly, rather than sinking and settling on the relatively shallow
harbor bottom at Bandar Abbas.
“Its motion (was) stopped only by the mast and stack encountering the harbor
bottom,” he said.
Several people sustained minor injuries in the incident and
were taken to a hospital, IRNA reported.
The Iranian news agency reports said the warship was “being
returned to balance.”
That’s a process likely to take a week or more, according to
Schuster, with cranes, floatation bladders and portable pumps needed.
The
Sahand is the most recent ship to carry that name for the Iranian navy. The
previous Sahand was sunk by the US Navy in 1988 during Operation Praying
Mantis, which launched after a US frigate was crippled by an Iranian mine in
the Gulf
