Iran flexes military muscle after joint naval drills with Russia, China
The exercise included China's powerful Nanning warship and coincided with Tehran’s recent diplomatic pushes to reposition itself in the regional power play by adhering to the “look to the East” policy.
TEHRAN — Iran's military forces wrapped up naval drills jointly conducted with two top allies, China and Russia, in the Gulf of Oman in what Tehran has projected as a major show of military might to its Western foes.
The four-day drills that were concluded last Sunday saw Chinese and Russian ships parading behind Iran's top destroyer, Jamaran, a Moudge-class frigate that joined the country's fleet in 2010. China’s South Sea Fleet warship, the Nanning, took part in the exercises, as well as Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov, armed with hypersonic missiles. China's Nanning is a type 052D destroyer and bears similarities with the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers.
China's CCTV reported that the drills included live-fire suppression and strike practice with nighttime communication exercises.
From the Iranian side, the regular army and the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) both engaged in the war games. The stated goal of the "Marine Security Belt 2023," according to the IRGC-linked Tasnim News, was "bolstering maritime security and trilateral cooperation with a message of goodwill for global peace, and shaping a new naval community for a shared future."
