Iran's IRGC bolsters navy with cruise missiles amid flaring tensions
Capable of "sinking enemy destroyers," the missiles were added to the arsenal as the United States has been deploying advanced aircraft and warships to the region to fend off Israel against potential attacks by Iran and its proxies.
TEHRAN — Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Friday that it had introduced significant additions of cruise missiles and combat drones to its naval units to enhance conflict preparedness, as the region was expecting a promised Iranian attack on Israel.
The 2,640 new weapons, according to the IRGC's Tasnim News Agency, included medium- and long-range missiles, drones, electronic warfare tools and naval radars, among other equipment, some of which was unveiled during a ceremony attended by the IRGC's top commanders in the Persian Gulf port city of Bandar Abbas.
The new missiles, the Guards said, had been equipped with such new capabilities as highly explosive and radar-evading warheads. "Upon impact, those missiles will cause enemy destroyers to immediately sink," Tasnim added. It noted that the latest state-of-the-art technology needed in surface and under-surface operations had also been embedded into the new weapons.
The deployment of the missiles and drones occurred at a moment of heightened tension between Iran and Israel after the killing late July in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas movement.
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