The Iranian Navy has tested the latest version of the home-made Nasr missile during naval drills held in its territorial waters.
According to Iranian English-language news agency Fars News, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said the cruise missile’s accuracy was confirmed after it hit the specified target.
The drill during which the firing took place is dubbed Velayat 95 and is held in the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman and North of the Indian Ocean. The Iranian Navy’s annual drill started on February 13 and will continue through March 1, according to Fars News.
Velayat kicked off amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Relations worsened after U.S. president Donald Trump said Iran was “put on notice” after a ballistic missile test in January.
Another reason for the tensions was a stand off between U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mahan and four Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats. USS Mahan was forced to fire warning shots in the first run-in between the two countries in 2017. Incidents of the kind are not unusual in the Strait of Hormuz and the number of such encounters doubled in 2016.