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News ID: 36124
Publish Date : 28 January 2017 - 20:48

Iran Navy Plans Major Drill in Indian Ocean



TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian naval forces plan to stage a large-scale drill to boost and put on display the country’s military prowess, Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told reporters on Saturday.
The country's biggest naval military maneuver, code-named Velayat 95, would be held in the north of the Indian Ocean in February, he added.
"This maneuver will show the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power in the international scene,” he said.
He added that Iran’s Navy attached special importance to defense missions and presence in the high seas, including the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb, to protect commercial vessels and tankers.
In line with international efforts against piracy, the Iranian Navy has been conducting patrols in the Gulf of Aden and the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait to safeguard maritime routes used by the country's vessels and oil tankers. Iran’s Navy has managed to foil several attacks by pirates on both Iranian and foreign vessels during its missions in international waters.
The Iranian commander said that the country's naval fleets had so far traveled to all littoral states of the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia, adding that they plan to sail into the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean in the near future.
Sayyari also announced Iranian Navy’s plans to manufacture state-of-the-art military equipment and attain self-sufficiency in this regard soon.
"A Fateh-class submarine, Sahand destroyer and another missile-equipped warship will join the Navy … in the near future,” the commander said.
Iran’s Navy staged Velayat 94 military maneuvers in January 2016 across a large swath of territorial waters and high seas in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Indian Ocean.
During the drills, various types of Ghadir-class and Tareq-class submarines detected and tracked the mock enemy’s mobile targets and destroyed them by firing advanced and overhauled torpedoes.
Iran’s domestically-built Jamaran destroyer and other vessels also fired different torpedoes. The Iranian Army’s naval forces also fired surface-to-surface Nasr missiles which successfully hit targets.
Iranian naval forces also successfully test fired Nour (Light) surface-to-surface cruise missile which has a range of 150 kilometers. Nour cruise missile has an accurate impact precision, good velocity, high detection power and powerful warhead. It could be launched both from sea and surface.
On Friday, a report said a strike group of American, British and French warships is preparing for "war games" in the Persian Gulf, including a simulated confrontation with Iran.
Exercise Unified Trident, due to begin next week, has been planned for some time but is the first major deployment of British and American warships in the area since Donald Trump entered the White House.
The show of force next week will see Royal Navy flagship HMS Ocean and Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring deploy to the Persian Gulf in a show of "deterrence and reassurance" alongside American warships USS Hopper and USS Mahan and French anti-aircraft frigate FS Forbin, the report said.
Former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, told Middle East Eye that the timing of the drills was "worrying" and that military commanders would be "acutely aware of rising tensions" in the region in the wake of comments by Trump.
The new U.S. president has made no secret of his desire to take a hardline with Iran and to "dismantle" President Obama’s landmark nuclear agreement with the country. Earlier this week he pledged close cooperation with the occupying regime of Israel against Iran.
His newly appointed defense secretary, James Mattis, is also a fierce critic of Iran. Mattis has called for a more confrontational approach toward Iranian vessels and aircraft.
Security experts fear the Unified Trident drills could see a repeat of tensions last summer when Iranian naval boats made a series of maneuvers around U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.
Few details about the exercise have been released and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain did not respond to requests for comment.
During the exercise HMS Daring and HMS Ocean are likely to join with U.S. and French warships to simulate destroying Iranian combat jets, ships and coastal missile batteries, the report said.
Defense experts say that Iran could deliver a series of lethal blows using a combination of mini-submarines, fast attack boats, mines and shore-based anti-ship missile batteries.
The British prime minister said on Thursday the United Kingdom and the United States must not intervene in other sovereign countries’ affairs in an attempt to "remake the world in our own image.”
Theresa May told a meeting of Republican lawmakers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Thursday that the "days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over.”