Iran and Turkey are betting on drone aircraft carriers to project power

‘Cheap solutions’

While nothing compared with the supercarriers of the US Navy, ships like the Shahid Bagheri and Shahid Mahdavi could still have a strategic impact.

Professor Shaul Chorev, leader of the Maritime Policy and Strategy Research Center at the Israeli National Center of Blue Economy, contrasted these DIY Iranian ships with the Israeli Navy.

“Unlike us, they use cheap solutions,” Chorev recently told Haaretz. “They take a merchant ship, equip it with a flight deck, and turn it into a poor man’s helicopter or drone carrier. It meets all their needs.”

“Ultimately, such drones — and eventually unmanned surface vessels — can be positioned at strategic points that would allow them to do what our Sa’ar 6 corvettes cannot.”

Although far from the might and versatility of flattops, these vessels enhance Turkey and Iran’s respective capabilities to project naval power.

Clark, the senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, believes these ships will “elevate” both navies by giving them “reach well beyond their own regions.”

Nevertheless, he highlighted some critical deficiencies.

“Drone carriers will not really make the Iranian Navy a blue water force because the IRIN [Islamic Republic of Iran Navy] will still lack the wide-area surveillance and targeting needed to use drones against opposing ships or the underway replenishment ships needed to keep ships at sea,” Clark told Business Insider. “Turkey’s navy has these capabilities and is already a blue-water force.”

These drone-carriers also have inherent shortcomings when compared to aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships in other navies.

“These carriers initially will lack attributes needed in a true amphibious ship, such as a well deck or transport helicopters to deploy troops, medical facilities and berthing for troops, and repair facilities,” Clark said. “They could add some of these capabilities, though, and be a version of an amphibious ship.”

“They will still lack the survivability of a warship, but they may be good enough for the situations these countries could face against regional competitors,” Clark added.

Nor are these attempts equal. Andrew “Woody” Lewis, a retired US admiral who’s a distinguished fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, views Iran’s attempts at projecting naval power as second-rate compared to Turkey.

“Iran’s intent to project power far from its shores with drones from the Shahid Bagheri does not give them a capability to attain sea control in a blue water environment,” Lewis, a former US 2nd Fleet commander, told BI. “It is nothing more than an attempted terror attack in open water without the ability to hide behind surrogate forces ashore.”

“The Iranian aspirations are in no way comparable to the tremendous capabilities of the US and our Allies to reconfigure the payload of large- and medium-sized naval platforms to project power in a blue water environment,” Lewis said.