Iranian Navy Conducts First Post-War Exercise

 

Possibly in response to the presence of the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) Carrier Support Group (CSG) in the area, the regular Iranian Navy (Nedaja) has sallied from Bandar Abbas Naval Harbor, and commenced an exercise in the Gulf of Oman on August 21. This is the Nedaja’s first Southern Fleet exercise since the 12-Day War with Israel.

Codenamed Exercise Sustainable Power 1404, the exercise is being coordinated by the Nedaja’s 2nd Flotilla, which is headquartered at the new naval harbor at Jask. Some limited additional activity was noted at piers in the Jask naval harbor on August 17. The 2nd Flotilla is commanded by Rear Admiral Abbas Hassani. 

 

Planned long-range missile firing outlined by Admiral Hassani on August 19 (Landsat, Copernicus, Google Earth, CJRC) 

 

 Anti-ship missile firings took place on the first day of the exercise. Alvand Class frigate IRINS Sabalan (F73) fired at least one Qadir anti-ship missile. The Qadir has a range of approximately 125 miles, with a 200kg warhead, a development of the Noor missile first reverse-engineered from the Chinese C-802 missile. IRINS Sabalan completed a refit in November 2024, in which 12 Noor missile boxes were replaced by 16 Qadir launchers. At the time the refit was completed, the Iranian Kayhan website speculated that the Sabalan had also been fitted with 650-mile range Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis anti-ship missiles.

A short-range Nasir missile, a derivative of the Chinese C-704, was also fired from the Hendijan Class auxiliary IRINS Ganaveh (A1408) during the first day, and the Velayat-2 coastal defense system was used to ground-launch an anti-ship missile, probably a Qadir. Descriptions of exercise activity published by the Tasnim news agency and others often use illustrative imagery from previous exercises and confuse missile types, so reports and pictorial evidence of firings cannot be relied upon. 

 

A picture released by the Tasnim news agency shows a 250-mile range Bavar-5 one-way attack drone being launched from what appears to be a Delvar Class replenishment ship. (CC BY 4.0)

 

In the lead-up to the exercise, Rear Admiral Hassani gave a briefing indicating that a long-range anti-ship missile would be fired from the Gulf of Oman at a target some 1,400 miles away to the west of the Maldive Islands. There are no indications that a Notice to Mariners has been issued, or that the Maldives government has been informed. But such a flight trajectory would take any Iranian missile launched over the sea area where the Nimitz CSG is now believed to be operating. This may be a gesture of defiance on the part of the Nedaja, and it remains to be seen if the Nedaja will actually carry out this intent on the second day of the exercise. E-2D surveillance aircraft from Squadron VAW 12 aboard the Nimitz will no doubt be monitoring the potential threat, and also the positions of the Nedaja vessels which have left Bandar Abbas Naval Harbor but which are not participating directly in the exercise.

Exercise Sustainable Power 1404 is likely to conclude on August 22 with some form of long-range missile firing, either of an anti-ship missile or of ballistic missile fired from the deck of an Iranian warship. Iranian ships capable of deck-firing missiles however - Shahid Madhavi (C110-3), Shahid Bagheri (C110-4) and the Nedaja’s IRINS Makran (K441) - remain off Bandar Abbas as of August 20.
 

Top photo of Alvand Class frigate IRINS Sabalan (F73) during 2019 exercise by Alireza Bahari - Fars Media Corporation - CC BY 4.0