One of Iran’s newest warships capsized in port over the weekend while undergoing repairs, an incident that could damage key warfighting systems and put the ship out of commission for up to half a year, a naval analyst said.

The 311-foot-long frigate Sahand was at a dock in the port of Bandar Abbas when it “lost its balance” after water leaked into its tanks, according to a report from the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

A photo from the semi-official Tasnim News Agency showed the warship, with a displacement of about 2,000 tons, resting on its left side in the Bandar Abbas port.

The ship, which Tasnim said entered service in December 2018, is one of the bigger vessels in Iran’s fleet, equipped with antiship cruise missiles and an electronic warfare system.

  • norimee@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Most of Irans military technology is unbelievable outdated, like they don’t even have reliable transportation for their most important polititicians and fly them around in rusty helicopters from 1979 (that crashes and kills the head of state). And the newer ones are just… like this. Like when you buy a fake imitation of the product you want and its just flimsy and faulty (and just falls over).

    Doesnt that make the thought of them having nuclear weapons extra scary? Not even that they could use them intentionally, but how big is the chance they are stored, transported and handled properly.

    How big is the chance they blow up half the world just by accident?

    • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
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      4 months ago

      How big is the chance they blow up half the world just by accident?

      I think you need to read up on nuclear warhead yields, because if you are seriously saying a few of their barely working centrifuges can make yields that can create nuclear fusion explosions large enough to destroy a continent, you sound dumb.

      • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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        4 months ago

        It’s not dumb at all.

        The early US warheads had a design such that a wrong electrical signal, as simple as a static electricity spark or short circuit from a corroded insulation piece somewhere, could trigger the detonation sequence and cause a full-strength detonation of the warhead. There are lots of ways it can happen, not all of them obvious in advance until it happens; fires, air accidents, lightning, or all kinds of accidental human mishandling while they’re being assembled or moved around or maintained or God knows what else. And it only takes once.

        I can’t find it now, but I swear that there was an incident that involved the accidental release of an H-bomb during an aircraft accident over the American south where the damn thing managed to somehow do exactly what was described and send the wrong electrical signal while it was being jostled around or burned or whatever, and it was only the elaborate multiple safety systems the Americans had built into it (after some painful experience had taught them they had to be careful with the fucking things) that stopped it from detonating for real and blowing up half of Georgia or something. When they found the thing on the ground, it was fully ready to go, and it was only because the one little additional redundant “are you sure?” switch was still set to “no” that it didn’t go off.

        And you can build a bomb without adding the safety systems. No one stops you; there’s no pop up that says you can’t put these pieces together because it’s not safe yet. And your boss might get really, really mad at you if your nuclear weapon isn’t ready yet because you need to add something that might not be needed. I think it’s a very real concern.

        • Mechanize@feddit.it
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          4 months ago

          There are multiple incidents that kind of fit, but I think you are talking about this one: Wiki article

          Information declassified since 2013 has shown that one of the bombs was judged by nuclear weapons engineers at the time to have been only one safety switch away from detonation, and that it was “credible” to imagine conditions under which it could have detonated.

          • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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            4 months ago

            That’s the one

            Parker F. Jones, a supervisor at Sandia, concluded in a reassessment of the accident in 1969 that “one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe” He further suggested that it would be “credible” to imagine that in the process of such an accident, an electrical short could cause the Arm/Safe Switch to switch into the “Arm” mode, which, had it happened during the Goldsboro accident, could have resulted in a multi-megaton detonation.

            Bill Stevens, a nuclear weapon safety engineer at Sandia, gave the following assessment in an internal documentary film produced by Sandia in 2010: “Some people can say, ‘hey, the bomb worked exactly like designed.’ Others can say, ‘all but one switch operated, and that one switch prevented the nuclear detonation.’”[34]

            Charlie Burks, another nuclear weapons systems engineer for Sandia, also added: “Unfortunately, there have been thirty-some incidents where the ready/safe switch was operated inadvertently. We’re fortunate that the weapons involved at Goldsboro were not suffering from that same malady.”[35]

            The bomb was about 250 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. I don’t know exactly how it works, but if it’s simple multiplication, then you could say that everything for 480 miles in any direction would have been more or less destroyed.

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        No one thinks that. A nuclear attack is generally assumed to cascade counter launches by other regional neighbors, so on, and so forth.

        This probably wouldn’t happen, as I’ve even read reports suggesting a conventional response (albeit overwhelming) may be more likely.

        No one thinks Iran’s nukes would crack a continent.

          • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            That is not my perception of the root comments “blow up half the world” line.

            • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one
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              4 months ago

              Your perception of reality is optimistic in the face of the amount of stupidity you seem to encounter every day.

              You seem to consistently plug your ears with your fingers and sing, and that’s not the right way to fix things.

              You need to call out stupidity when you see it, stop being scared of people not liking you. This is why your life is slowly crumbling around you.

          • JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I’ve read the root comment a few times and cannot see what you’re huffing about. They didn’t say anything about the creation of the weapons.

            The entire comment revolved around the country’s capability of keeping one in functional condition without an accident occurring, as seems to so often happen.

      • yeather@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        More like accidentally launch one at India / Pakistan and watch that area of the world burn.

      • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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        4 months ago

        Yea, nuclear bombs are super small and weak. It’s just propaganda that they deliver any destructive power at all.

        The last nuke used in wartime was full of confetti and streamers. You sheep need to get it together.

    • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Outdated technology militarily is proving to be something we in the west need to invest into again. The US and USSR didn’t win against Germany because we had superior technology. We won because we pumped out shitloads of Sherman’s and Jeeps. So many that the USSR was using them for a decade after the iron curtain went up. Now we’re seeing in Ukraine how important 155mm shells and dumb glide bombs from 60 years ago are still just as devastating. So, while Iran might not have our cool tech that makes things like Iron Dome possible, or laser weapon systems. The Shahed drone is so stupidly easy to produce and cheap. It’s insanely destructive by cost. We shouldn’t underestimate a people for being simple with their design when that works incredibly well and is incredibly cheap.

      • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        The Sherman was a "modern"tank for the time, it just had a very simple design philosophy. Just pointing out it wasn’t “outdated”.

        • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Compared to the tiger tank it wasn’t super modern and it struggled, but we built so damn many of them that it didn’t matter it wasn’t better, it just surrounded and shot at them. We’re seeing the same philosophy today on the battlefield in Ukraine. We keep pushing for ultra modern weapons, but it’s becoming clear that simple, easy, and devastating proven weapons are still just as good if not better.

        • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I can tell your stupid because you said it has a Republican structure like the US without mentioning the Supreme Leader of Iran… the government of Iran killed a girl and multiple others because they didn’t want to wear head scarves.

          I don’t give a shit about Iran, but don’t act like they’re holier than thou.

            • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              You keep saying stupid shit that’s just all over the fucking place. What does being a republic and killing minorities have to do with each other? By your own weird ass definition then this means that Iran is also killing people for no reason other than being… black?

              Killing minorities and giving immunity to police officers is more to do with the power imbalance and the role that creates a system of injustices that’s built by design because the founders were white men.

              Please stop spouting dumbass non-sense and understand that both countries are run in some major different ways, but that both countries can still have shitty internal and external laws, governance and policy.

            • mean_bean279@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Oh, so there’s multiple supreme leaders at one time and they make up a court that delivers a decision? Our Supreme Court is a fucking travesty right now, but it’s not the decree of one person. As is the case with the supreme leader of Iran. I’m not criticizing a lifetime appointment, or a religious zealot. None of my language implied I was against their religion. I’m against one person being a supreme leader. It’s a fairly easy concept.

              If you don’t support Iran than you should have an easy time understanding how having a supreme leader who can freely dictate laws is a little different than our fucked up republican (or representative democracy) here in the US. Now, we’re on the verge of having a supreme leader given some new interpretations of the law… but that’s completely different from the current Iranian setup.

              Do you consider North Korea a democratic republic because they also say they are?