Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has launched a new warship capable of delivering aircraft, missile launchers and drones to its naval fleet.
State television announced that a “heavy, multi-purpose, and long-range warship capable of carrying all types of aircrafts, drones, missiles and radar systems” had been added by the IRGC, adding that “Iran’s Shahid Rudaki warship is a mobile naval city capable of carrying ocean missions.”
IRGC Naval Commander Ali Reza Tangsiri told state TV that the warship would provide security for “maritime transportation lines, oil tankers, commercial and fishing fleets on the high seas.” The Guards’ Sepah news website published an article citing the elite force’s Supreme Commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami as saying the 150-meter-long warship “creates wider horizons for our navy to move across the seas.”
The lastest military developments come amid soaring tensions between Tehran and Washington.
A U.S. official disclosed to Reuters on Monday that President Donald Trump, who has just two months left in office, had asked for options on attacking Iran’s main nuclear site at Natanz – although he had ultimately decided against ordering such an operation.
Iranian officials reiterated that any attack on their country would be met with a “crushing” response against the U.S.
Antagonism between the longtime foes has soared since the Trump Administration withdrew from the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the Islamic Republic’s economy.
The Ayatollah Regime’s clerical rulers consider the U.S. military presence in the Middle East a threat to the Islamic Republic’s security.
The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet declined to comment about the addition of the new warship to the IRGC fleet.