TEHRAN -- Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday fired cruise and ballistic missiles during a major military exercise across the country’s south.
“The use of ballistic missiles by the IRGC Navy is a new concept ... and they hit their targets with 100% precision,” Guards chief General Hussein Salami said.
Tasnim news agency said five cruise missiles and a number of attack drones successfully hit their targets on Tuesday as attack helicopters provided close air support.
Iran’s ballistic missiles have a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles) and are capable of hitting Zionist targets in Occupied Palestine and U.S. bases in the region. The occupying regime has intensified threatening the Islamic Republic in recent weeks.
As the five-day military exercise kicked off Monday, a top Iranian commander warned that any Israeli strike will draw an Iranian response that targets all elements of the infrastructure used in the attack, an apparent reference to the range and accuracy of Iran’s missiles.
IRGC Navy commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said the drill sent a warning to the enemies that the country will annihilate them before they can even get close to its southern islands in the Persian Gulf.
In the drill, “we demonstrated that we will obliterate the enemies before they can even approach the islands,” he said. “In case a portion of the enemies manages to slip through, we have a plan for them as well and we will target them with obstructive weapons.”
He said the forces succeeded in accurately using Iranian-made specialized weaponry and ammunition during the exercise, describing it as a “source of pride” for the country.
On the other hand, the drill had a “message of peace” for friendly neighbors of Iran, said Tangsiri.
The drill sends the message that “we the countries of the region can fully ensure the security of the Persian Gulf and shared waters via collective cooperation, and we do not need the presence of extra-regional countries at all,” he added.
Tangsiri said Iran’s armed forces stand fully prepared, under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei to redirect fire back toward extra-regional forces and set them on fire if they ever seek to ignite fire in the region.
The Great Prophet 17 drills kicked off on Monday, covering the coastlines of the southern Iranian provinces of Hormozgan, Bushehr, and Khuzestan.
On Tuesday, two advanced missile destroyers rejoined the Iranian Navy after undergoing a complete overhaul process performed by experts at home.
The vessels, named Gorz (Mace) and Khanjar (Dagger), were welcomed back into the Navy’s fleet during a special ceremony held in Bushehr. Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani and Deputy President for Science and Technology Sourena Sattari were in attendance during the event.
Addressing the ceremony, Flotilla Admiral Abbas Fazel-Nia, commander of the Navy’s factories, praised the fact that the overhaul process was performed using the country’s domestic capacities.
The vessels, he said, have been equipped with domestically-overhauled

integrated air defense systems, long-range cruise missiles, naval artillery, and fire suppression devices.
Each of the vessels weighs 285 tons and is 47 meters in length, and can travel as far as 1,400 kilometers before being refueled.
The ceremony also featured the unveiling of the country’s first indigenous 36,000-horsepower diesel engine that is planned to be installed on the destroyers.
Sattari said the engine would double the speed of the country’s naval vessels from around 15 to 30 nautical miles per hour.
The features turn the destroyers into vessels of choice for international naval missions in extra-territorial waters, Fazel-Nia said.
The overhaul process began in March and took 644,000 man-hours to complete.
From time to time, Iran holds military exercises, saying they are aimed at improving the readiness of its forces and testing new weapons. Last month, Iran’s military began its annual war games in a coastal area of the Gulf of Oman.