Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Iran in Stage 3 of large-scale naval drills

RIA Novosti

08/05/201017:57

MOSCOW, May 8 (RIA Novosti) - Iran has launched the third phase of a major naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman, Press TV reported on Saturday.

Iran's armed forces launched a series of large-scale exercises in the country's territorial waters on Wednesday. The expanded naval drills, codenamed Velayat 89 are slated to last eight days and cover some 250,000 square kilometers of Iranian territorial waters.

During the fourth day of the drill on Saturday, hovercrafts strafed mock enemy targets while vessels, destroyers, and frigates blocked their advance towards Iran's territorial waters, a Press TV correspondent reported.

In another operation, speed boats, backed by Air Force fighters, stopped and captured an invading vessel.

Tactical operations included electronic countermeasures (ECM) as well as disabling enemy radars and communication systems.

The third stage of the drill is scheduled to continue with reconnaissance and drone aircrafts conducting interception operations.

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari has said the exercise will display Iran's "defensive and deterrent power," and send a message of "peace and friendship" to regional states.

Last month, Iran's Revolutionary Guards conducted a wide-ranging naval exercise in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, codenamed Great Prophet 5.

Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), said April's three-day drills were designed to "ensure security in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and the Gulf of Oman."

Iranian military officials have repeatedly warned that if Tehran is attacked, it will retaliate by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly 40% of the world's seaborne oil shipments pass through the strategically important waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.