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Iran will hold a three-day navy drill in and around the strategic Strait of Hormuz this weekend, according to state media.
Officials were quoted as saying that the annual exercise, which will start on February 22, will extend as far as the Sea of Oman and the fringes of the Indian Ocean.
Iran regularly holds maneuvers in the strait, the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea.
Navy commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi told state television that submarines, warships, helicopters, and surveillance planes will participate in the drills.
The exercise, dubbed as Velayat-97, will include missile launches from the vessels, he added.
The exercise aims to evaluate the navy's equipment, practice launching weapons and "enable the troops to gain readiness for a real battle," the semiofficial Tasnim news agency cited the rear admiral as saying.
"The maneuver should prepare us for an emergency," Khazandi added.
The military exercises come at a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington, which last May withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed tough sanctions on the Iranian economy.
Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz if the United States decides to block oil exports as part of its sanctions.
Iran is a major exporter of oil and a member of the OPEC oil cartel.
The United States has dismissed the threat, saying Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz.
Based on reporting by Tasnim, dpa, AFP, and AP
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