In this photo provided November 5, 2018, by the Iranian Army, a Sayyad 2 missile is fired by the Talash air defense system during drills in an undisclosed location in Iran. (Iranian Army via AP)
The spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says enemies of the Islamic Republic are well aware that no step taken against the country’s national interests will go unanswered and will be met with suitable reactions.
Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif made the remarks on Sunday, while addressing hostile media reports to the effect that the IRGC’s recent naval drills, including targeting of a mock-up US aircraft carrier, were not successful.
During IRGC’s large-scale drills in Iran’s southern waters, codenamed Payambar-e A’zam (The Great Prophet) 14, which ended on Thursday, the elite force staged “all-out and multilayered” strikes against the life-size replica of a Nimitz-class US aircraft carrier.
The IRGC’s servicemen began the episode by destroying the mock carrier’s accompaniment with coast-to-sea fire. State television aired footage showing the damage caused to the model vessel following the operational juncture, and the IRGC commandos’ rappelling onto it.
Following the drills, some Western and anti-Iran media claimed that the goal of the IRGC forces was to totally destroy the mock-up carrier and that goal was not achieved during the said maneuver.
Rejecting Iranian enemies’ false reports about the naval drills, the IRGC spokesman said, “We need this mock-up carrier ... to exercise various scenarios and its destruction is not a prioritized goal in our operational plans for such drills. We are still planning to further use it in a variety of drills to test our equipment and systems and boost [our forces’] readiness for participation in a real [battle] field,” he added.
“As said before, in the war game designed for this maneuver, the goal was to destroy two accompaniments of the aircraft carrier, which was done appropriately. The goal was to hit the command bridge of the carrier ... and conducting heliborne operations on its deck. This [operation] has a special meaning, which has been well understood by defense and military experts, including Americans,” the IRGC spokesman added.
He said IRGC’s large-scale naval maneuver was staged under special conditions that exist in the country, the region and the world, and proved that the enemy's arms embargo and economic sanctions have failed to have any impact on the country's forward march and the promotion of its military might as well as the enhancement of its deterrent power.
"The hostile front has well understood that according to the defense doctrine of the [Iranian] Armed Forces, no move against Iran's national interests will go unanswered and will be faced with appropriate and firm reactions within the framework of [the principle of] aggressive deterrence," the IRGC spokesman said.
General Sharif noted that the organizers of the IRGC's naval drills intended to convey to the neighboring countries the message of peace and [the necessity of the] protection of the regional security.
He emphasized that the IRGC's aggressive scenarios in military exercises are directed toward hostile extra-regional countries possessing aircraft carriers who seek in their evil strategies to plunder regional nations' wealth through their illegitimate and destabilizing presence in the region and by fomenting state terrorism.
Sharif emphasized that the terrorist and inhuman regime of the United States of America tops these extra-regional plundering countries that are present in the region.
The IRGC chief commander Major General Hossein Salami said on Tuesday that Iran will never initiate any offensive, but assumes a fully offensive mode when it comes to tactical and operational performance.
“We will never launch an offensive against any country,” he said, adding that the corps’ activities are completely “defensive” in nature on the strategic level.
The commander, however, asserted, “We are fully offensive in [our] tactic and operation.”
The IRGC Navy Commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri also said on Wednesday that the Great Prophet drills simulate actual warzone engagement with real enemy forces and are meant to send across a message of warning to those potentially seeking to undermine the country’s security.
“These maneuvers have taken shape based on [the notion of] wargame and the strategies that we employ in the Persian Gulf and the country’s [general] southern expanse,” Tangsiri said.
During the maneuvers that spanned the general area of Hormozgan Province, west of the strategic Hormuz Strait, and the Persian Gulf, the Corps staged “all-out and multi-layer” strikes against the life-size replica of a Nimitz-class US aircraft carrier.
The IRGC’s servicemen began the episode by destroying the mock carrier’s accompaniment with coast-to-sea fire. State television aired footage showing the damage caused to the mock aircraft carrier following the operational juncture, and the IRGC commandos’ rappelling onto the vessel.
In an unprecedented move, the IRGC also fired ballistic missiles from underground launch facilities during the drills.
The drills have been monitored by Iran’s first military satellite Nour (Light)-1 that was launched by the Corps into orbit in April. Simultaneously, the satellite relayed a high-resolution vivid image of the al-Udeid Airbase in Qatar that is reportedly the largest United States’ base in West Asia.
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