Iranian Navy begins major war games

Iran started on Friday a major naval exercise in an area covering about one million square kilometers from the east side of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf of Oman to the northern Indian Ocean,according to MNA.

The six-day maneuvers, entitled Velayat-90, will be conducted in international waters and the country’s territorial waters with the participation of various units of the Iranian Navy, including submarines, warships, destroyers, missile systems, and special forces. 

Iranian naval forces will practice tactics of detecting, identifying, and destroying mock enemy forces during the war games.   

On the first day of the exercise, the Jamaran destroyer closely monitored the activities of mock enemy vessels and transmitted information to the headquarters of the exercise and Iranian warships, submarines, missile-launching destroyers, hovercraft, and other naval vessels carried out tactical maneuvers and spread out across the theater of operation to deal with mock enemy forces. 

The commander of the Iranian Navy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari has said that the drills would be held to test the country’s new defense and missile systems, combat vessels, submarines, drones, and torpedoes, and provide naval forces with the opportunity to perform combat and reconnaissance missions, repel mock attacks, and practice countering electronic warfare measures. 

He also said that Tareq and Ghadir submarines and new domestically manufactured hovercrafts and drones would be used during the war games, adding that a number of Iranian naval units, including submarines, warships, destroyers, and missile systems would act as mock enemy vessels. 

The spokesperson for the war games, Rear Admiral Amir Rastgari, told the Fars News Agency on Friday that the Ra’d (Thunder) missile will be test-fired during the exercise. 

The Ra’d is Iran’s newest domestically manufactured medium-range surface-to-air missile, which was put on display for the first time during a ceremony in September.

M.D