Iran Defiantly Touts Domestic ‘New Generation Cruise Missiles’ In Naval Drills Near Gulf

Amid crushing US sanctions aimed at strangling its defense, aviation and nuclear development sectors, Iran is increasingly focused on ramping up high tech domestic missile defense production.

Ultimately it hopes to showcase its domestic military wares to signal the West that sanctions aren’t working. In its latest test Iran’s Navy displayed the abilities of newly developed land-to-sea and sea-to-sea cruise missiles.

The drills were conducted in the Sea of Oman and Indian Ocean this week, and involved live-fire tests against targets nearly 300km away, which Iranian media said were successful. 

Iranian state media hailed what it called “new-generation cruise missiles” which officials confirmed were “designed and developed by experts at home.”

“The coast-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles were produced by experts at Iran’s Ministry of Defense in cooperation with the Navy,” PressTV described further.

Iran published photos and videos showing that a “dummy” ship had been successfully destroyed at ranges of up to 280km away.

#Iran’s naval forces successfully test domestically-built cruise missiles during military drills in the Sea of Oman and the northern Indian Ocean. pic.twitter.com/rZwGMAMw4W

— Press TV (@PressTV) June 18, 2020

Normally such tests amid still simmering US-Iran tensions in the Persian Gulf would be met with swift headline-grabbing condemnation out of the White House and State Department.

However, multiple domestic crises facing the Trump administration – not to mention other global hot zones like the India-China border clashes or the Korean peninsula situation – have made Iran’s provocative new tests barely a blip of the geopolitical radar.

It’s also likely Washington is less worried about Iran’s domestic missile response capabilities after recent disasters.

First there was the January accidental and tragic shoot down of the Ukrainian passenger jet, resulting in all 176 civilians on board killed. 

And more recently more than two dozen Iranian sailors were killed and injured in disastrous naval drills gone wrong when an Iranian ship mistakenly released a cruise missile on a ‘friendly’ ship also taking part in the drills.