Iran fires new torpedo in major oil passage

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Apr. 03 – Iran successfully test-fired a new torpedo on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz as part of weeklong naval war-games in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Apr. 03 – Iran successfully test-fired a new torpedo on Monday in the Strait of Hormuz as part of weeklong naval war-games in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said.

“The torpedo that was fired had the ability to target submarines deep in the sea and warships on the water”, Rear Admiral Mohammad Ibrahim Dehghani told the state-run news agency Fars.

He did not name the domestically-produced torpedo, but said that it successfully destroyed its target.

Earlier in the day, Dehghani had announced, “Because of its high speed, this torpedo is able to strike any type of submarine at any depth.

More than a third of the world’s oil supply travels through the Strait of Hormuz which Tehran dominates.

Iran has hinted that it might block the narrow strait if the United States carried out aerial bombardments of its nuclear facilities which the West suspects are being used to build atomic weapons.

State television reported that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards plan to test-fire new missiles on Tuesday.

On Sunday, a senior commander in the IRGC claimed that the Islamic Republic had developed the world’s “fastest underwater missile” which could destroy both battleships and submarines.

“The fastest underwater missile in today’s world was successfully tested in the military exercises codenamed Great Prophet”, deputy commander of the IRGC Navy Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi told state television.

“The speed of this missile called ‘Hout’ is 100 metres per second and no ship can escape it”, Fadavi said, adding that the maximum speed of conventional underwater missiles was 25 metres per second. State television aired clips of the missile as it was being fired and moving in the water.

“Currently, only two countries in the world are equipped with such a missile”, he said. “Ships that can fire the Hout missile are radar-proof and cannot be identified”.

The missiles are also designed to evade sonar detection, Fadavi claimed.

On Friday, a another top commander in the IRGC claimed that Iran had developed a new-generation stealth air missile which makes use of modern “multiple warhead” technology allowing it to strike several targets simultaneously with superior accuracy.

The new domestically-produced missile can “hide from radars” and “evade anti-missile missiles”, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, who commands the IRGC Air Force, told state television.