Iran has bolstered its naval forces, equipped them with more drones and precision missiles with ranges of up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), amid escalating tensions with the United States over shipping traffic through the world’s most critical bottleneck.
The new equipment was officially handed over to the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy on Saturday, according to state-run media outlets. Reconnaissance and combat drones, as well as electronic warfare equipment, truck-mounted missile launchers, and hundreds of cruise and ballistic missiles, are among the systems.
The declaration followed rumors earlier this week that US military authorities had devised extraordinary plans to send armed troops on commercial cruises across the Strait of Hormuz. Recently, the Pentagon announced the deployment of more fighter jets and navy forces to the Persian Gulf region in response to “alarming events,” such as Iranian seizures of commercial vessels.
The Iranian military’s spokesman, Brigadier General Abolfazi Shekarchi, has condemned Washington’s intended deployment of troops on private ships. “What do the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Indian Ocean have to do with America?” he asked, according to the Iranian news agency Tasnim. “What exactly is your business here?”
The Strait of Hormuz, the small channel that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, carries approximately 20% of the world’s oil supplies, or one-third of all seaborne petroleum exports. Typically, the operators of detained ships are accused of shipping crimes such as oil smuggling. Some of the ships were only released when other countries released Iranian tankers captured in their midst.
