During the evening of 19 June a strange vessel was spotted transiting the Dover Straits. Her AIS transmission stated only that her call sign was Makran, sailing under the Greek flag and conducting military operations. Her length and breadth were 16m and 6m, but no other voyage data was available. In fact, it seems that IRINS Makran is the newest and largest ship of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Navy. Converted from an ex- oil tanker (Persian Gulf) to operate as a sea base providing support capacity for remote military operations, the hull is virtually unchanged, but a large flight deck, approximately 80m long and the width of the hull, has been added above the forward part of the deck, along with a crane used to launch fast attack craft and mini-submarines.
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