Azerbaijan, Baku, September 17 /Trend N. Umid/
Iran plans to increase its patrol boat speed to 80 knots in the future, Navy Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Rear-Admiral Ali Fadavi said, Fars news agency reported.
He went on to note that the world's patrol boat speed reaches approximately 35 knots, whilst Iran's are 60 knots.
For the time being Iran has more than 100 patrol boats covering the Persian Gulf daily, Fadavi said, adding that 'the Americans see us wherever they look in the Persian Gulf'.
On September 13, Iranian media outlets quoted Lieutenant Commander of the Navy, Rear Admiral Gholam Reza Khadem Bigham as saying that Iran has achieved a high standard of military technology to protect its interests in the Persian Gulf.
He said the Iranian Navy is defending the country's interests in international waters.
On September 4, Khadem Bigham underlined the possibility of dispatching Iranian warships to the Mediterranean and the Southern hemisphere.
He said, "We will likely go to the Mediterranean, far coasts in the Southern hemisphere and off the African coast depending on decisions to be made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces."
His remarks came after the Iranian Navy dispatched its 27th flotilla of warships to the high seas in August to protect the country's cargo ships and oil tankers against pirates.
In recent years, Iran stated it has self-sufficiency in essential military hardware and defence systems.
Tehran established an arms development programme during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s to counter the weapons embargo imposed on it by the US and its Western allies.
Since 1992, Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armoured personnel carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines and fighter planes.