IRIS Sahand (1969)

Iranian frigate Sahand was a British-made Vosper Mark V class frigate (also known as the Alvand-class frigate) commissioned as part of a four-ship order. She was launched in 1969. The ship was originally called Faramarz, named after a character in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution it was renamed Sahand, after the Sahand volcano.

Construction
On 10 May 1970, she was damaged by fire while fitting out.

Service history
The Iranian Navy ship was sunk in Operation Praying Mantis on 18 April 1988. Located by two American A-6E Intruders of Attack Squadron VA-95 steaming roughly 10 mi southwest of Larak Island, she was hit by two Harpoon missiles and four AGM-123 Skipper II laser-guided missiles. A pair of Rockeye cluster bombs from the aircraft and a single Harpoon from the destroyer USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) finished the destruction of the ship.

Left heavily aflame, dead in the water and listing to port, Sahand burned for several hours before fires reached her ammunition magazines and they detonated, sinking her in over 200 m of water southwest of Larak Island. Forty-five members of her crew were killed.