Iranian Navy’s Training & Logistics Vessel Sinks after Fire in Gulf of Oman

The Iranian Navy’s ‘Khark’ training and logistical ship has sunk in the Gulf of Oman off the coasts of the southern port of Jask after a fire Tuesday monring, the Navy announced.

The Iranian Navy’s  public relations department said in a statement that all crew on board the vessel have been disembarked and transferred to the coast after the fire broke out on the ‘Khark’ vessel, Fars News reported quoting a Navy statement.

The military vessel was being deployed to international waters for a training naval operation when one of its systems caught fire near the port of Jask.

Twenty hours of efforts by military and civilian organizations to extinguish the fire were futile as the fire spread to different parts of the naval ship, which finally sank, the statement added.

The ‘Khark’ had been in service for more than four decades and had taken part in many training operations.

The Khark had been called out earlier as a supply ship for Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) naval missions including supplying fast attack boats that have come in the way of U.S. naval ships operating in the region

Khark is the largest logistic support ship for the Iranian army and was purchased from Britain in 1977, and Iran received it in 1984. It weighs 33 thousand tons. The boilers and propulsion systems have been completely replaced in this ship, and other systems and equipment have been developed.

Its length is 207 meters, its width is 26.5 meters, and its speed is about 39.8 kilometers per hour. The ship includes a platform for landing helicopters, as well as four cannons and four 12.7 mm machine guns.