Deputy Commander of the Iranian Navy Rear Admiral Abbas Zamini downplayed the effects of the western sanctions against Iran's defense industry, and announced that the country has equipped a large number of its civilian vessels with missile-launching systems for military operations.
"Many units which were used to transfer passengers in the past have now been equipped and delivered to the Navy units as missile-launching vessels, meaning that they now have a fully different application," he added.Whether the Deputy Admiral is referring to vessels related to the Arvandan built types such as the Naser class, Gowhar passenger ship type (high speed craft), LSTs or others is unclear- Iranian media defense reporting is flawed in detail. No video/photo evidence has yet been provided of these claimed auxiliary missile boats.
Example of Arvandan built boat: Nasser class
Gowhar passenger ship type (high speed craft)
Historical examples of converted passenger ships to auxiliary cruisers
SMS Cap Traflagar: passenger liner converted to an auxillary cruiser during World War I
RMS Carmania armed merchant cruiser converted from civilian ocean liner
Photos: Wikipedia, Arvandan and MarineTraffic.com
