Iran fires anti-ship cruise missile from submarine during naval drills in Persian Gulf

Report by Tehran Times; photos by Mehr News Agency

For the first time during naval drills in southern waters, the Iranian Navy fired an anti-ship cruise missile at mock enemy targets. Cruise missile was fired from a Qadir-class submarine. It took place on the third day of military exercises which started on Friday.

Hossein Khanzadi, commander of the Iranian Navy, had announced last Monday that Qadir-class submarines had several times fired anti-ship cruise missiles. Khanzadi said the newly home-made submarine, called Fateh, also enjoys this capability.

"Our Qadir-class submarines have so far fired cruise missiles and Fateh has this capability too and we will display it in future drills," Rear Admiral Khanzadi told FNA.

He also added that the missile mounted on Fateh submarine is the new generation of home-made Nasr missile which was developed within the framework of Jask 2 project and has differences in range with the past models of Nasr cruise missile.

On the first day of the war games, the naval forces for the first time used Fateh submarine and Sahand destroyer.

Also, during the third day of exercises in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, the helicopter units of the Navy carried out heliborne operations and launched attacks and destroyed mock enemy targets.

The helicopters, including Bell-212, used rocket-launching systems and machine guns to successfully smash the targets. Other helicopters of the Navy, equipped with demining equipment, destroyed enemy mines in the sea.

Also, one of the Air Force's Phantom fighters fired a air-based Nasr cruise missile at a target in the sea to provide support for the Navy vessels during the war games.

The Naval forces fired several domestically-made cruise missiles and torpedoes from vessels and submarines on the second day of war games.

The massive three-day drills, codenamed "Velayat 97", started in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman on Friday. The drills were held in an area of two million square kilometers, from the Strait of Hormuz to the southeastern coasts of Makran, the Sea of Oman and the northern parts of the Indian Ocean, down to the 10-degrees latitude.

On the second day of war games, Naqdi destroyer and Tabarzin missile-launching frigate fired two Qader and Qadir cruise missiles at the targets.

In addition to the vessels, the coast-to-sea missile-launching systems of the Navy fired Qader cruise missiles at hypothetical enemy targets, destroying them.

Qader and Qadir missiles have a range of 250km and 300km respectively and can be fired from vessels and coast-to-sea launchers and aircraft.

Also, the Tareq submarine fired an electric torpedo and the Qadir submarine fired Valfajr torpedo at targets.

Meantime, an SH helicopter of the Army destroyed hypothetical enemy's target with a Mark 46 torpedo.

Also, during the drills, the Navy's drones which are equipped with different types of bombs attacked the hypothetical enemy and the air defense units of the Navy intercepted and downed a hypothetical enemy drone.

In another development on Saturday, the Navy's hovercrafts successfully fired surface-to-surface cruise missiles in the drills, smashing targets in long distances successfully.