Commander: Iranian Navy Enhancing Flying, Subsurface Capabilities

The Iranian Navy has considerably increased the capabilities of its different flying, marine and submarine units, its Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced on Tuesday.
“We have become much more powerful in the different areas of repair and maintenance, equipping coastal, flight, marine, submarine and transregional units and even in health and treatment than the past years,” Admiral Sayyari said.

He pointed to the need for the development of the Iranian Naval units as per the country’s Vision 2025 Plan, and said his units get to know their capabilities and measure their progress in the first step and then look for ways to improve by remving flaws and deficiencies.

Last month, Admiral Sayyari said that the Iranian Navy is fully capable of manufacturing all its needed military tools and equipment.
The commander said that self-sufficiency in producing naval equipment has given the Iranian Navy strong surface and underwater capabilities both.

“The joint search and rescue exercise with the Omani Navy will be held in March 2014”, Sayyari announced while underscoring the importance of holding wargames in upgrading the might of naval force in defending Iran’s waters.

The Iranian Navy has accelerated and widened its progress after Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei described it as “a strategic force”.

“Given the current issues of the world and today’s geopolitical conditions of the world, we should strengthen ourselves in sea and in coast as far as we can,” Ayatollah Khamenei stressed on November 28, 2010, addressing senior Navy commanders here in Tehran in a ceremony to commemorate the National Navy Day.

The leader also stressed that increasing manpower, recruiting talented personnel and taking innovations and initiatives into action are highly necessary for the future of the country’s naval forces.

Iran’s naval power has even been acknowledged by foes. In a Sep. 11, 2008 report, the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy said that in the two decades since the Iraqi imposed war on Iran, the Islamic Republic has excelled in naval capabilities and is able to wage unique asymmetric warfare against larger naval forces.

According to the report, Iran’s Navy has been transformed into a highly motivated, well-equipped, and well-financed force and is effectively in control of the world’s oil lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz.

The study says that if Washington takes military action against the Islamic Republic, the scale of Iran’s response would likely be proportional to the scale of the damage inflicted on Iranian assets.