• Iran has spent the past few years turning a container ship into a militarized drone carrier.
• New satellite images show the Shahid Bagheri has left its home port for the first time.
• The vessel's development highlights Tehran's efforts to project power farther out.

A container ship that Iran has spent the past few years turning into a militarized drone carrier has left its home port for the first time, recent satellite imagery obtained by Business Insider shows.

In an image captured on November 12 by BlackSky, which provides space-based real-time intelligence, the new Shahid Bagheri can be seen at an Iranian shipyard located along the Persian Gulf.

But an image captured a little more than two weeks later, on November 28, shows the Bagheri missing from its berth at the Iran Shipbuilding & Offshore Industries Complex, just west of the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

Open-source intelligence gathered by H I Sutton, an independent defense analyst, suggests that the Bagheri left the port to begin sea trials off Iran's coast. It's unclear if these are still ongoing. When asked to comment on the situation, a US defense official said the military does not provide assessments on adversary capabilities or actions.

Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and an expert on Iranian security and defense affairs, told BI that the Bagheri's development underscores Tehran's efforts to project its power overseas — far beyond nearby waters.

Expanding Iran's reach

The Bagheri started as a container ship known as the Perarin, but in 2021, Iran began working on the vessel to transform it into a functional drone carrier for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.

At nearly 790 feet long, the Bagheri somewhat resembles a Soviet aircraft carrier with a distinctive ski-jump ramp, which was added in 2023. The ship's angled flight deck, used for launching and recovering drones, measures just under 600 feet.

It's unclear what type of drones — or how many — might be included in the Bagheri's future carrier air wing. It could consist of a mix of one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles, in addition to reconnaissance and strike platforms that can return to the after their missions are completed.

Nadimi said that the Bagheri will increase Iran's flexibility by allowing it to carry out long-range surveillance and strike missions and recover the drones used. In turn, Tehran can invest more in developing more sophisticated and larger systems that won't just be used for one-way attack operations.

The Bagheri isn't the only container ship that the Iranians have turned into a military vessel. Last year, the IRGCN commissioned the Shahid Mahdavi, a modified expeditionary sea base that was formerly known as the Sarvin. This vessel can carry helicopters, drones, special forces units, and missiles.

Earlier this year, the Mahdavi completed a weekslong deployment in the Indian Ocean. During this voyage, it sailed near a key US base on the island of Diego Garcia in what appeared to be a demonstration of Tehran's reach to the American military.

Nadimi said that the IRGCN's push to convert merchant ships into sea bases and drone carriers reflects its desire to engage in longer-range operations farther from Iran, possibly in an attempt to mirror the US Navy aircraft carriers that regularly deploy to the region.

The capabilities of the Bagheri and Mahdavi don't come close to those of the American carriers, which can launch and recover advanced fighter jets and travel with smaller but powerful warships. However, the Iranian vessels could still have an impact in an asymmetrical naval warfare role, especially if they're armed with missiles, helicopters, and drones.

The Middle East has seen a sharp increase in unconventional naval warfare in recent years, ranging from Iranian harassment of commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz to the missile attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes carried out by Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Heavily armed drone carriers like the Bagheri could allow Iran to engage in this kind of warfare at greater distances rather than being constrained to its neighborhood or having to rely on proxy forces.

"They should be considered a threat not only to sea lines of communication and freedom of shipping and things like that but also to coastal and inland facilities and infrastructure as well," Nadimi said.