Iranian Army started large scale joint military exercises codenamed ‘Muhammad Rasoulallah’ (the messenger of God) along the Makran coastal strip in the country’s Southern and Southeastern regions, Fars News Agency (FNA) reported.

The fifth of its kind, the two-day military drills, kicked off with an aim to boost skills, defense readiness, and morale of the army personnel, as well as to exchange experiences, evaluate training tactics and coordinate activities of the army-affiliated staff.

The joint drills include participation of Army’s naval, ground and air forces as well as Air Defense units, covering an area of 3 million square kilometers in the country’s Southern and Southeastern regions, the Makran coastal strip and the shores of the Sea of Oman.

In a relevant development in early November, the Iranian Air Force bombers, including Phantom and Sukhoi 24, smashed the simulated enemy’s fixed and mobile ground targets using home-made optimized missiles on the second day of the massive wargames in the Central parts of the country.

“After conducting air tracing mission and air-to-land shooting by the F5 and Mig 29 fighter jets against targets, the strategic Sukhoi 24 bombers destroyed the ground targets successfully by different home-made optimized and precision striking X-25 missiles,” Spokesman of the 7th round of the large-scale wargames dubbed as ‘Fada’eeyan Harim-e Velayat’ General Massoud Rouzkhosh said.

He added that the F4 bombers also fired updated Maverick missiles and precision striking bombs on ground targets and destroyed them.

General Rouzkhosh underlined that the ultra-light aircraft and combat drones of the Air Force were also used in large numbers on the second day of the wargames to carry out reconnaissance missions and destroy simulated targets.