US Warships Pushed Back by Iran’s Ballistic Missile Power

Iran’s anti-ship ballistic missile power has forced the US warships in the Persian Gulf to retreat from their positions, a senior Iranian defense ministry official said.

Addressing a group of Iranian soldiers here in Tehran on Tuesday, Deputy Defense Minister General Majid Bokayee said Iran designed and developed home-made anti-ship ballistic missiles because this kind of missile can target enemy vessels easily.

“We managed to employ the ballistic missiles which had previously been designed and produced for ground-to-ground missions for targeting enemy ships, and then we witnessed the US naval fleets’ retreat in the Persian Gulf after the first test on the missile,” Bokayee stated.

In July 2012, Iran’s supersonic anti-ship ballistic missiles, ‘Khalij-e-Fars (Persian Gulf)’, displayed their 100 percent precision capability after hitting and destroying the specified targets in the last phase of the Payambar-e Azam 7 (The Great Prophet 7) drills.

“The Persian Gulf missile precisely hit and destroyed the target which was several times smaller than the marine targets which can pose a threat,” Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said at the end of the last phase of the wargames on July 4, 2012.

In early 2011, Iran started the mass-production of the Persian Gulf anti-ship missile which is designed to destroy targets and hostile forces at sea.

The supersonic projectile, which carries a 650-kilogram warhead, is immune to interception and features high-precision systems.