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U.S. Central Command Reveals Strike on Iran’s New Soleimani-Class Corvette Shahid Sayyad Shirazi.
U.S. forces struck the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy missile corvette IRIS Shahid Sayyad Shirazi on March 4, 2026 during Operation Epic Fury near Bandar Abbas. The attack removes one of Iran’s newest Soleimani-class catamaran warships from the fight, further weakening Tehran’s ability to contest U.S. naval power in the Strait of Hormuz.
On March 4, 2026, during ongoing Operation Epic Fury, U.S. forces struck the Iranian Navy’s IRIS Shahid Sayyad Shirazi, a Shahid Soleimani-class missile catamaran corvette operating under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) stated that more than twenty Iranian regime vessels have now been destroyed or disabled since the start of the campaign, adding this Soleimani-class warship to that list. This attack targets one of Iran’s newest and most capable surface combatants in the sensitive Strait of Hormuz approaches, underlining both the reach of U.S. maritime power and the rapid erosion of Iran’s naval order of battle. The strike comes less than three weeks after the ship showcased a new vertical-launch Sayyad-3G naval air-defense missile during a high-profile exercise, highlighting how quickly Iran’s attempt to field blue-water, area-air-defense assets is being rolled back.
U.S. forces struck Iran’s IRGC Navy missile corvette IRIS Shahid Sayyad Shirazi during Operation Epic Fury on March 4, 2026, damaging one of Tehran’s newest Shahid Soleimani-class warships near the Strait of Hormuz and further eroding Iran’s naval capabilities in the Gulf (Picture Source: U.S. CENTCOM / Iranian Media)
According to CENTCOM, U.S. forces have now struck or sent to the seabed more than twenty ships belonging to the Iranian regime, and the Shahid Sayyad Shirazi was the latest high-value combatant hit under Operation Epic Fury. The catamaran corvette was reported burning at sea yet initially remained afloat, with heavy fire and smoke visible along the hull and superstructure, indicating serious damage to its combat systems, sensors and topside equipment. In a speech on March 4, Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth stated that Iran’s newest warship had been sunk, underscoring the U.S. message that even Tehran’s most modern naval platforms are vulnerable once they sortie from their home waters. While imagery suggested a vessel still on the surface immediately after the strike, U.S. officials present the ship as removed from Iran’s operational order of battle and ultimately consigned to the depths.
IRIS Shahid Sayyad Shirazi is one of a small number of Shahid Soleimani-class missile corvettes, compact wave-piercing catamarans of around 600 tons displacement designed for high-speed littoral warfare. Built with a catamaran hull and angular superstructure to reduce radar signature, the class embarks a dense missile armament on a relatively small platform, combining deck-mounted anti-ship cruise missiles with a vertical launch system (VLS) for naval surface-to-air missiles. The ship’s combat information center, integrated with modern air-search and surface-search sensors, is intended to coordinate fast attack craft, unmanned systems and coastal batteries, turning the corvette into a command node for IRGCN surface action groups operating in the confined waters of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. In Iranian naval doctrine, these ships are meant to extend the anti-ship threat envelope and provide local air-defense cover for swarms of smaller craft, complicating U.S. carrier strike group operations near key chokepoints.
The Shahid Sayyad Shirazi had been particularly active in the weeks preceding its loss. During the “Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz” exercise in February 2026, Iranian media showed the corvette conducting what was presented as the first public shipborne launch of the Sayyad-3G surface-to-air missile from its forward VLS module. This navalized, long-range variant of the Sayyad-3 family is credited in open sources with an engagement range in the 120–150 km bracket, intended to intercept aircraft, drones and cruise missiles and to plug into Iran’s broader integrated air-defense network. Army Recognition’s report on the test highlighted that integrating Sayyad-3G on the Soleimani-class corvettes marked a shift toward genuine layered air defense at sea for the IRGC Navy, turning these ships into multi-mission combatants rather than simple missile carriers. Striking the very platform that showcased this capability only weeks earlier bluntly demonstrates that, despite this evolution, Iran’s new air-defense assets at sea remain exposed to superior U.S. surveillance, targeting and strike systems.
Within the wider framework of Operation Epic Fury, neutralizing Shahid Sayyad Shirazi carries disproportionate operational weight. U.S. forces are conducting a sustained maritime campaign that combines undersea warfare, long-range precision strike and air-maritime integration to degrade Iran’s ability to contest sea control from the Gulf of Oman to the northern Persian Gulf. From a naval warfare perspective, the removal of a Soleimani-class catamaran reduces Iran’s capacity to generate credible surface action groups with organic area air defense, weakens the coherence of its littoral sea-denial posture and complicates efforts to protect its remaining high-value units concentrated around Bandar Abbas. The cumulative effect of more than twenty Iranian vessels destroyed or disabled is to tilt the local balance of power even further toward U.S. and allied task forces, allowing them to maintain sea lines of communication through the Strait of Hormuz with greater freedom of maneuver.
For the United States and its partners, the Shahid Sayyad Shirazi strike sends a clear signal about the credibility of American sea power in one of the world’s most contested maritime corridors. A warship that had just been showcased as the spearhead of Iran’s emerging naval air-defense architecture is now assessed by Washington as destroyed or permanently combat-ineffective, despite operating close to its home port and under the umbrella of Iranian coastal defenses. By tracking, targeting and engaging such a platform in its own bastion waters, U.S. forces show that they can impose both sea control and sea denial at a time and place of their choosing, protect commercial shipping and friendly navies, and systematically dismantle the IRGC Navy’s most modern assets. In the context of Operation Epic Fury, the fate of Shahid Sayyad Shirazi reinforces a strategic reality that matters in Tehran and across the region: in any contest of fleets, sensors and missiles in the Gulf and its approaches, U.S. maritime forces still hold the decisive advantage.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.