Iran’s Navy Receives Cruise Missiles and Drones As Tensions Rise

• Iran’s navy has received a delivery of cruise missiles, drones, and reconnaissance helicopters.
• Iran’s navy chief said the missiles had a range of “over 1,000 km,” state media reported, per Reuters.
• It comes as the US accused Iran of a drone strike on a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean.

Iran’s navy has received a new delivery of cruise missiles, loitering drones, and reconnaissance helicopters, the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran’s state media agency, reported.

The report said that Iran had added both the Talaiyeh and Nasir cruise missiles to its naval fleet and had also taken deliveries of other “homemade equipment,” including a surface-to-surface missile system and “a system for detection and tracking of divers.”

The new military systems were unveiled during a ceremony at Iran’s Konrak naval base in southeast Iran.

Shahram Irani, the head of the Iranian navy, said: “The Talaeiyeh cruise missile has a range of over 1,000 km and is a smart missile that can change targets mid-mission,” state media reported, per Reuters.

It comes as the US Department of Defense accused Iran of a drone strike on a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean on Saturday.

“The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker, was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. GMT) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran,” a Pentagon spokesperson previously told Reuters.

Tensions in the wider region have been on the rise as Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen have increasingly targeted commercial ships around the Red Sea in what is ostensibly a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.

The mounting attacks have led to a series of major shipping firms suspending their operations in the Red Sea, leading to fears over global supply chains, as Business Insider previously reported.

Nicholas Brumfield, a Middle East politics researcher who focuses on Yemen and maritime security, wrote in a report for the think tank the Foreign Policy Research Institute that the “attacks are unlikely to cease, and may escalate further, so long as Israel’s campaign continues.”

On Saturday, Iran denied US accusations that it has had a hand in helping the Houthis plan the attacks on Israeli-linked ships.