The Great Prophet IX ( fa, پیامبر اعظم 9, Payambar-e-Azam 9) was an Iranian
war games
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...
exercise in the general area of the
Strait of Hormuz
The Strait of Hormuz ( fa, تنگه هرمز ''Tangeh-ye Hormoz'' ar, مَضيق هُرمُز ''Maḍīq Hurmuz'') is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the ...
on
Larak Island
Larak Island (also Lark Island) is an island off the coast of Iran, which has been one of Iran's major oil export points since 1987. The narrowest part of the Strait of Hormuz at distance of lies between the island and the Omani-owned Quoin Is ...
,
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Persis, Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a Mediterranean sea (oceanography), me ...
. It started on February 25, 2015, and finished on February 27, 2015.
The exercise was notable for using a full scale
mock-up
In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...
of an American aircraft carrier as a target.
Exercise description
The exercise was conducted by Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
(IRGC)
and began by an order from Major General
Mohammad Ali Jafari
Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari ( fa, محمدعلی جعفری, born 1 September 1957, also known as Aziz Jafari and Ali Jafari) is a former commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps from 2007 to 2019. He was appointed by S ...
, chief commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, with different
naval units of IRGC On February 25, 2015.
The ceremony kicking off the maneuver included Iranian senior officials including Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the IRGC chief commander; Brigadier General
Amir Ali Hajizadeh
Amir Ali Hajizadeh ( fa, امیرعلی حاجیزاده; born 28 February 1962 in Tehran) is commander of Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps since October 2009.
During Eghtedar-e Velayat war game, on 8 March 2016, Ha ...
, the IRGC
Aerospace Force commander;
Ali Fadavi
Ali Fadavi ( fa, علی فدوی) is an Iranian military officer who currently holds office as the second highest commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hierarchy.
Early life and education
He was born in 1961. Fadavi studied at Is ...
, the IRGC Navy commander;
Mohammad Pakpour, the IRGC land forces commander; Brigadier General
Hossein Salami
abdullah eslami (1960) is an Iranian military officer with the rank of major general, who is the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Early years
Salami was born in 1960 in Golpayegan, Isfahan province, Iran. In 1 ...
, IRGC's second-in-command; plus Parliament Speaker
Ali Larijani
Ali Ardeshir Larijani ( fa, علی لاریجانی, ; born 3 June 1957) is an Iranian conservative politician, philosopher and former military officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who served as the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran ...
and film director
Ebrahim Hatamikia
Ibrahim (also spelled Ibraheem) ( ar, إبراهيم, ) is the Arabic name of the prophet and patriarch Abraham and one of Allah's messengers in the Quran. It is a common first name and surname among Muslims and Arab Christians, a cognate of the ...
attended to kicking off the maneuver ceremony.
The Great Prophet IX war games goal was to show IRGC's missile and rocket-armed speedboats combat power to transregional powers as well as to enhance the defense capabilities of IRGC's operating units and test modern military tactics and equipment.
The exercise practiced an attack against an enemy's
aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
, the first time such an attack was practiced in an Iranian war game. This included an attack on a 1:1 replica of a , which was made completely of metal and designed to not get sunk after being hit by rockets fired from
(IRGCN) rocket-armed
speedboats
A motorboat, speedboat or powerboat is a boat that is exclusively powered by an engine.
Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gea ...
. After getting hits from speedboats,
Sepah Navy Special Force
Special Unit of NEDSA ( fa, یگان ویژه ندسا), also known as Sepah Navy Special Force (S.N.S.F.) ( fa, نیروی ویژه دریایی سپاه), is a Takavar unit in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy stationed in the ...
(SNSF)
Takavar This is a list of special forces units in Iranian Armed Forces and police.
The name can refer to members of regular units who have successfully completed Commando or Ranger training courses and marines trained as Frogman, or the hand-selected and h ...
members boarded it, firing at simulated enemies, then clearing it, finally leaving it abandoned.
Media reaction
The building of the mock-up aircraft carrier before the war game was announced sparked media frenzy in US and Israel, which noticed its construction through
satellite image
Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell ima ...
s and were unaware of Iranians' agenda. It was labeled as a "symbol of mistrust" by a
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
article and "black propaganda" by Israeli-based
Ynet
Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...
, speculated by analysts that it is being built "for propaganda purposes",
and was described to be part of "military deception tactics", as a movie prop, or for training purposes.
A US official, while admitting that he doesn't know the purpose of its construction, said the Iranians are "up to no good", while a US-based analyst said that the "fake aircraft carrier" will "make the Iranians look pretty silly".
Gallery
File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (11).jpg, IRGCN frogmen
A frogman is someone who is trained in scuba diving or swimming underwater in a tactical capacity that includes military, and in some European countries, police work. Such personnel are also known by the more formal names of combat diver, comb ...
equipped with T9 and Z-84 submachine gun
A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...
s in an amphibious exercise of Great Prophet IX war games exercise
File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (2).jpg, IRGCN frogman equipped with T9 submachine gun in Great Prophet IX war games exercise
File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (7).jpg, An S.N.S.F. Marine equipped with Igla (SA-18) MANPADS.
File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (1).jpg, An S.N.S.F. Marine equipped with KL-7.62
File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (5).jpg, IRGCN marine on a Yamaha WR series bike (used as a "Combat Motorbike").
File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (6).jpg, An IRGCN Team approaching the shore, two marines are seen on an ATV.
File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (4).jpg, Rocket-armed Speedboats firing rockets on the Nimitz replica.
File:IRGC naval execise-2015 (10).jpg, Personal water craft
A personal watercraft (PWC), also called water scooter or jet ski, is a recreational watercraft that a rider sits or stands on, not within, as in a boat. PWCs have two style categories, first and most popular being a runabout or "sit down" whe ...
s of IRGCN.
See also
*
References
External links
{{commons category, Great Prophet IX
Pictures of Great Prophet IX maneuver
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Iranian military exercises
2015 in Iran
February 2015 events in Iran