Iranian and Russian naval forces conducted joint exercises Thursday in the Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean, staging what they dubbed "Maritime Security Belt 2026" as President Trump contemplates airstrikes against Iran and American warships tighten their presence across the region.
The drills involved units from the Iranian Navy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Russian Navy special units, employing both air and surface craft. Two days earlier, the IRGC, a designated terrorist organization, temporarily shut down the Strait of Hormuz for live-fire drills involving ship- and shore-launched missiles.
Iran also issued warnings to airline pilots operating in the southern part of the country that rockets would be launched during the exercises. None of this is routine, no matter what Tehran claims.
As reported by Breitbart, the Kremlin insisted the drills were "planned exercises and agreed upon in advance," a familiar line from a government that has perfected the art of pre-scheduling provocations. Video published by the Russian military showed the corvette Stoiky arriving at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, presumably before joining the exercises.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov offered the kind of diplomatic language Moscow deploys when it wants to appear above the fray while actively stoking it:
"We are currently witnessing an unprecedented escalation of tensions in the region, but we still expect that political and diplomatic tools will prevail."
He followed that with a call for "restraint and prudence" directed at "our Iranian friends and all parties in the region." The word "friends" is doing considerable work in that sentence. Russia is not a neutral observer counseling calm. It is a participant sailing warships into contested waters alongside a regime that just closed one of the world's most critical shipping lanes to practice firing missiles.
Iranian Navy commander Rear Adm. Shahram Irani dispensed with any pretense of the exercises being defensive or routine. He complained publicly about "threats, noise, propaganda, and the presence of extra-regional fleets in West Asia," then escalated:
"If the extra-regional fleet feels it has come with power, it should know that the Iranian people will confront them with greater power. The faith of the people and missiles are the Islamic Republic of Iran's deterrent weapons against the enemy."
Iranian state media described the drills as "routine" and said they included "the liberation of a hijacked ship," aerial reconnaissance, surface operations, and "the capture of simulated pirates." The gap between "routine anti-piracy exercise" and "we will confront you with missiles and faith" tells you everything about where Tehran's head is.
Iranian spokesman Capt. Hassan Maqsoudlou confirmed that participating units included "special operations units" from both the Iranian Navy and IRGC naval forces, and spoke of strengthening relations between the two countries' navies. China was reportedly supposed to participate, but little information was made publicly available about the presence of any Chinese ships. Whether Beijing quietly pulled back or simply kept its involvement out of the press is an open question worth watching.
The joint drills unfold against a backdrop of significant American force projection. The USS Abraham Lincoln and its battle group are currently within striking distance of Iran. The USS Gerald R. Ford, America's largest and most advanced warship, is headed for the Strait of Gibraltar and could be in position as soon as this weekend. Some 50 additional American combat aircraft have been moved into position this week.
If those figures hold, Iran could be facing one of the largest U.S. aerial deployments since the Cold War.
That is the context in which Tehran chose to close the Strait of Hormuz for missile drills and then stage joint exercises with Russia. These are not the moves of a regime confident in its diplomatic position. They are the moves of a government that sees the board clearly and is scrambling to project strength it may not possess.
There is a pattern with regimes under pressure. They hold military parades. They fire rockets into open water. They invite a fellow pariah state to sail alongside them for the cameras. The spectacle is the point, because the spectacle is all they have.
Russia gets to remind Washington that it has relationships in the region. Iran gets to claim it isn't isolated. Both governments get footage for state television. But none of it changes the correlation of forces. Two carrier strike groups, dozens of advanced combat aircraft, and the full logistical weight of the American military do not become less formidable because a Russian corvette docked at Bandar Abbas.
Tehran's strategy appears to be deterrence through rhetoric and symbolism: missiles and faith, as Rear Adm. Irani put it. That formulation tells you what's missing from the list. Modern air defense systems. A navy capable of contesting blue water. Allies are willing to fight rather than issue press releases about restraint.
Russia will call for calm. Iran will fire rockets at imaginary pirates. And American carrier groups will continue closing the distance. The Gulf of Oman is getting crowded, and only one side chose to be there from a position of strength.
