Iran’s revolutionary paramilitary guards have introduced underground ballistic missiles as a component of a training involving a mock-up of aircraft carriers in the Strait of Hormuz, state television reported Wednesday.
This is the newest hurdle in a training that the previous day saw two U.S. bases on liberation alert.
Photographs of drones captured through the Guard showed two missiles exploding from covered positions in what gave the impression of being a desert plateau in central Iran, with debris flying through the air in its wake.
The launches took place Wednesday, said General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Guard aerospace division. He said on state television that this was the first time the Guard had done this, it is known that the paramilitary force has vast underground bases that hide its arsenal of ballistic missiles.
In addition, drones attacked the bridge of the fake carrier, according to state television reports. The station did not publish photographs of launches or drone strikes, nor did it identify the missiles used in the exercise.
However, the training obviously intended to send a message to the United States.
A semi-official news firm near the Guard posted a graphic overnight that photographed the symbol of an American coffin-shaped aircraft carrier with a cross on it, with a legend quoting the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promising revenge against the United States. States. attack on a drone that killed a senior Iranian general in January.
Training, and America’s reaction to that, underscored the persistent risk of a military confrontation between Iran and the United States after a series of growing incidents last year that led to the drone strike in January. Tehran responded to the attack by firing ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of U.S. forces in Iraq.
While the coronavirus pandemic has taken over Iran and the United States for months, there has been an appeal in the United States for a one-year extension of the United Nations arms embargo on Tehran, which expires in October. A recent incident over Syria involving a U.S. fighter jet traveling on an Iranian aircraft has also rekindled tensions.
Iranian commandos temporarily descended from a helicopter in reproduction in photographs published Tuesday of the training entitled “Great Prophet 14”. Anti-aircraft guns opened fire on a pointed drone near the port city of Bandar Abbas.
State television footage also showed a variety of missiles fired from fastboats, trucks, cell phone launchers and a helicopter, some pointing to the fake aircraft carrier. One commander said the Guard, a force reporting only to Khamenei, also planned to fire “long-range ballistic missiles” in the training that continued on Wednesday.
Ballistic missile launches detected that the training resulted in U.S. troops being put on alert at Abu Dhabi’s Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates and Al-Udeid Air Base, the U.S. Army’s central command headquarters complex in Qatar, the military said. I. Troops sought refuge during this period.
“The incident lasted a few minutes and everything was declared transparent after the risk passed,” said U.S. Army Major Beth Riordan, spokesman for Central Command.
Both bases are many kilometers (miles) from where Iran placed the reproduction of the carrier.
Al-Dhafra is also home to five Rafale fighter jets built in France towards India for the country’s air force.
Other photographs of the training transmitted through Iranian state television showed fast boats circling the wallet, raising white waves in its wake. While Iran’s naval forces are overshadowed by the U.S. Navy, their commanders practice so-called “swarm” tactics aimed at submerging U.S. aircraft carriers crossing the strait to enter and exit the Persian Gulf.
Not without transparent delay if all the symbols were from Tuesday, like an aerial surveillance symbol that gave the impression that they had been taken through a drone bearing Monday’s date. The training was expected because satellite images released Monday showed that the fake aircraft carrier was installed through a tugboat.
A black-and-white satellite photo taken Tuesday through Colorado-based Maxar Technologies showed damage to the replica’s bow and several of its fighter jets.