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TEHRAN, May 3 (UPI) -- The array of missiles fired during the Great Prophet 5 military exercises conducted by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in late April demonstrates how much the elite force's
missile technology has advanced.

The 3-day annual war games in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the only way in and out of the Gulf, were staged as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps prepared to repel possible U.S. or Israeli attacks aimed at its nuclear installations.

The Iranian maneuvers were intended to "specifically highlight Iran's indigenous missile capability," the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor noted.

The war games "show the extent to which Iran has expanded its capabilities by manufacturing its own weapons," analyst Nimas Adelkhah wrote in Terrorism Monitor. It is published by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank that monitors security affairs worldwide.

Given the shortcomings of the Islamic Republic's ground, air and naval forces, missiles have become Tehran's primary deterrent force against possible U.S. or Israeli attacks.

The missiles range from intermediate range ballistic missiles such as the Shehab-3B, currently the backbone of Iran's strategic rocket forces, to the Nasr-1 anti-ship system.

This year's Great Prophet maneuvers focused on the IRGC's naval forces, underlining Tehran's warning it would close the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which some 40 percent of the world's oil s... >>>