Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has conducted a drill launching anti-warship ballistic missiles at a simulated target in the Indian Ocean, state television reports.
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It comes amid heightened tensions over Tehran's nuclear program and a US pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Footage showed two missiles smash into a target that Iranian state television described as "hypothetical hostile enemy ships" at a distance of 1800 kilometres. The report did not specify the type of missiles used.
In the first phase of the drill Friday, the Guard's aerospace division launched surface-to-surface ballistic missiles and drones against "hypothetical enemy bases."
Iranian state television described the drill as taking place in the country's vast central desert, the latest in a series of snap exercises called amid the escalating tensions over its nuclear program.
Footage also showed four unmanned, triangle-shaped drones flying in a tight formation, smashing into targets and exploding.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have increased amid a series of incidents stemming from President Donald Trump's unilateral withdrawal from Iran's nuclear deal with world powers.
Amid Trump's final days as president, Tehran has recently seized a South Korean oil tanker and begun enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels, while the US has sent B-52 bombers, the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine into the region.
In recent weeks, Iran has increased its military drills as the country tries to pressure President-elect Joe Biden over the nuclear accord, which he has said America could re-enter.
Iran fired cruise missiles Thursday as part of a naval drill in the Gulf of Oman, state media reported, under surveillance of what appeared to be a US nuclear submarine.
Iran's navy did not identify the submarine at the time, but on Saturday, a news website affiliated with state television said the vessel was American.
Iran has missile capability of up to 2000 kilometres, far enough to reach archenemy Israel and US military bases in the region.
Last January, after the US killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad, Tehran retaliated by firing a barrage of ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases housing US troops, resulting in brain concussion injuries to dozens of them.
Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the US from Iran's nuclear deal, in which Tehran had agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Trump cited Iran's ballistic missile program among other issues in withdrawing from the accord.
When the US then increased sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly abandoned the deal's limits on its nuclear development.
Australian Associated Press
