According to a tweet published by the French MoD on December 25, 2022, Falcon 200 established contact with 2 Iranian navy ships, the Moudge class frigate IRIS Dena and the Makran class Expeditionary Sea Base IRIS Makran westbound french Polynesian EEZ.
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Islamic Republic of Iran Navy's Moudge class frigate IRIS Dena. (Picture source: French MoD)
The Moudge or Mowj is a class of domestically-produced Iranian light frigates. Sources differ in specifying the type of the class, either as light frigate or corvette.
The first ship, Jamaran is said to be completed and is stationed in the port of Bandar Abbas. Damavand is the second ship in this class. The frigate was launched in March 2013.
The frigates have a length of 95 m (311.7 ft), a beam of 11.1 m (36.4 ft) and a draught of 3.25 m (10.7 ft). They can reach a maximum speed of 30 knots (55.6 km/h).
The ships are armed with 76 mm Fajr-27 naval guns, 40 mm Fath-40 AAA or 30mm Kamand CIWS, two 20 mm cannons Oerlikon, two 12.7 mm heavy machine guns, Mehrab SAM Surface to air missiles, four Noor or Qader anti-ship missiles and two triple 324 mm torpedoes.
French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France and its sole overseas country. It comprises 121 geographically dispersed islands and atolls stretching over more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) in the South Pacific Ocean.
The defense of collectivity is the responsibility of the French Armed Forces. It includes three Falcon 200 Gardian maritime surveillance aircraft from French Naval Aviation, which are to be replaced by the more modern Falcon 2000 Albatros starting in 2025.
Three French Navy vessels are based in the territory, including the surveillance frigate Prairial, the patrol and support ship Bougainville and the coast guard vessel Arago. Flottille 35F of French naval aviation deploys a detachment of two AS 365N Dauphin helicopters in Tahiti.
