The three-day navy drill which began on Friday will see more than 100 ships, submarines, hovercraft, planes and helicopters tour the waters around the secretive nation, covering 770,000 square miles. In a very public show of its military strength at a time when it relations with the US and its regional allies are deteriorating, Tehran is conducting the Velayat-97 exercise from the Strait of Hormuz, through the Sea of Oman and ending in the Indian Ocean. The main attraction of the large-scale demonstration will be the Moudge-class destroyer Sahand and the Fateh (Conqueror) cruise missile capable submarine.
IRNA quoted Iran’s navy commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi as saying: “The exercise will cover confronting a range of threats, testing weapons, and evaluating the readiness of equipment and personnel.
“Submarine missile launches will be carried out … in addition to helicopter and drone launches from the deck of the Sahand destroyer.”
While Fateh was launched last week, Iran introduced its homemade destroyer Sahand in December.
Officials say Sahand has radar-evading stealth properties, meaning it could be particularly difficult to detect by enemies.
The show of might comes weeks after Iran displayed a new cruise surface-to-surface missile with a range of 800 miles during celebrations to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Western experts claim the reclusive nation greatly exaggerates its weapons capabilities, although there are concerns about its long-range ballistic missiles.
Despite sanctions reimposed by President Trump, Iran’s oil exports have been higher than expected in January and February.
The Iranian nuclear deal was singed in 2015 between Iran and the UK, China, France Germany, Russia, the US and the EU.
At the time it was hailed as a landmark agreement which, according to then-President Barack Obama, would make the world a safer place and “cut off every pathway” to an Iranian-made nuclear weapon.
But Israel slammed the deal, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it a “historic mistake” and saying it would lead to a “a nuclear armed Iran” and eventually an all-out nuclear war.
President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal last May.
Mr Trump criticised the deal, calling it the worse deal he had ever seen because it did not curb the Islamic country’s development of ballistic missiles or its support for proxies across the region.
Iranian officials in the past have threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping route, in retaliation for any hostile US action.
The USS John C. Stennis entered the Gulf in December, ending a long absence of American aircraft carriers in the strategic waterway.
Last week US secretary of state Mike Pompeo attended a Warsaw conference which aimed to rally Western and Middle Eastern allies against Iran.