Iranian Drones Track, Record Video of US Warships in Persian Gulf

(FNA)- Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Navy for Operations Admiral Siyavash Jarreh reiterated the country’s naval power in the Persian Gulf, and said the Navy's drones have tracked, photographed and recorded videos of US warships in the waterway several times.

“Our drones have repeatedly shown up atop the US warships, taken photos, recorded videos and identified them even without the Americans’ knowledge, and their videos are available now,” Jarreh told FNA on Monday.

Elsewhere, he referred to the mounting of special torpedoes on the Navy’s helicopters, and said, “The torpedoes fired from the helicopters are the same as those fired from the surface units; such torpedoes can be fired from fighter jets and the main mission of the Navy’s P3F jets is fighting enemy submarines.”

Jarreh said that the Iranian Navy needs anti-subsurface and anti-surface torpedoes which are being produced by the country’s defense industry.

In a relevant event in 2011, an Iranian vessel and a surveillance plane tracked, photographed and recorded video of a US aircraft carrier during Iran's Navy drill near the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

Iran's Navy Commander Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said at the time that the action shows that Iran has "control over the moves by foreign forces" in the area.

"An Iranian vessel and surveillance plane have tracked, filmed and photographed a US aircraft carrier as it was entering the Sea of Oman from the Persian Gulf," Sayyari said.

Beyond the Strait of Hormuz lie vast bodies of water, including the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The US Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet is also active in the area, as are warships of several other countries that patrol for pirates there.

Lt. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the US 5th Fleet, said the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis and guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay headed out from the Persian Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz, after a visit to Dubai's Jebel Ali port.