General Abbas Nilforoshan
Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ‘The Great Prophet 17’ (Payambar-e Azam 17) military drills on the Persian Gulf coast, according to the reports by the IRNA news agency.
The exercises were launched on December 20 and are expected to last for five days.
‘The exercise has already begun in order to increase the level of combat readiness of the IRGC by using the most advanced equipment and tactics to deal with perceived threats and hybrid wars’, the Spokesman of the joint exercise of the Payambar-e Azam 17 General Abbas Nilforoshan announced.
The IRGC ground, naval and air forces, as well as units of the Basij Resistance Force, which is a paramilitary organization operating under the IRGC control, take part in the maneuvers.
The drills will be held in the provinces of Khuzestan, Bushehr and Hormozgan.
State media reported that in the early hours of Monday the drill was conducted to the south of the Bushehr province and also over parts of the Persian Gulf. The Iranian media had earlier reported on the beginning of a combat readiness check of the air defense forces in the Bushehr NPP area.
Referring to the diversity and multiplicity of participating forces and units, the drill spokesman said that “the practice of dealing with different kinds of threats that have the characteristics of synchronicity, coherence and entanglement in soft, semi-hard and hard areas will be operational for the first time in this exercise.”
The drill comes a day after the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy received military aircraft, swimmer delivery vehicles and a destroyer which had been modernized. The equipment was handed over to Iranian naval forces during a ceremony at Iran’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas.
