Iran attempted to launch a cruise missile from a submarine in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday but the test failed, two U.S. officials told Fox News on Wednesday.
The missile launch was reportedly conducted by an Iranian Yono-class “midget” submarine conducted. North Korea and Iran are the only two countries in the world that operate this type of submarine, noted Fox News.
In February, Iran claimed to have successfully tested a submarine-launched missile. It was not immediately clear if Tuesday’s test was the first time Iran had attempted to launch a missile underwater from a submarine.
The incident is the latest in a series of provocations by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
In March, the U.S. aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush confronted two sets of Iranian Navy fast-attack boats that had approached a U.S.-led, five-vessel flotilla as it entered the Strait.
Earlier that month, Iranian military vessels had a close encounter with a U.S. surveillance ship in the Strait of Hormuz. The incident was described by American officials as an “unsafe” and “unprofessional” maneuver by the Iranians.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in turn accused the United States of provoking tensions which led to the incident.
In January, a U.S. Navy ship fired warning shots at Iranian boats near the Strait of Hormuz, after five Iranian vessels approached the USS Mahan and two other American ships that were entering the strait.
In September, the Navy said that Iran had threatened two American maritime patrol aircraft flying over the Strait of Hormuz.
A week prior to that incident, a U.S. Navy patrol ship was forced to change course after a fast attack craft from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came within 91 meters of it in the central Persian Gulf.
