KISH, Aug. 05 (MNA) – The Iranian destroyer ‘Damavand’, which had crashed into a jetty back in January 2018, has been completely repaired and will join the Navy before the current year ends (March 2020), commander of the Iranian navy said.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the International Army Games on Kish Island, southern Iran, on Sunday evening, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi said the overhauled homegrown destroyer will join the country’s northern fleet in the Caspian Sea waters.

Rear Admiral Khanzadi added that the overhaul and repair process has been conducted in 18 months of incessant hard work by domestic experts.

“The destroyer has been upgraded and equipped with the latest technologies, making it ready to face the harshest situations in the Caspian Sea,” he noted.

On January 10, 2018, Damavand destroyer crashed into the breakwaters while coming into port due to the dramatic increase in wind speed and the severe storm that struck the Caspian Sea.

Damavand, a 100-meter-long destroyer weighing more than 1300 tons, officially joined the Navy’s northern fleet in the Caspian Sea in March 2015.

More than 700 industrial, research and academic Iranian centers cooperated in designing and producing the military vessel, which is also a training warship.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rear Admiral Khanzadi said Dena Destroyer, the latest version of Moudge-class vessels, along with a guided-missile destroyer will join the Navy’s southern armada in the current Iranian year.

MNA/4685082