A top Iranian military commander announced Sunday that his country plans to deploy new homemade submarines to patrol the country's southern coasts, the local satellite Press TV reported.

Deputy Commander of Iran's naval forces Admiral Amir Farhadi said the 500-ton submarine would join the army's naval fleet by July 2012, said the report.

The medium-size vessel was primarily designed to patrol Iran's southern waterways, especially the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, Farhadi was quoted as saying.

Last August, Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced that it had launched four domestically-made mini-submarines dubbed Ghadir in the Persian Gulf.

Vahidi said that the stealth submarine was capable of launching torpedoes as well as precision targeting.

The mass production of this strategic vessel had been carried out with the aim of increasing the defense capabilities of the naval forces, Vahidi said.