Tehran, April 3 (Reuters): Iran test fired a new torpedo in the Strait of Hormuz off its south coast, the world’s main nexus for shipping oil, state television reported today.

Iran rarely gives enough details of its military hardware for analysts to determine whether Tehran is making genuine advances or simply producing defiant propaganda while pressure ratchets up on its nuclear programme.

Although Iran can draw on huge manpower, its naval and air force technology is largely dismissed as outmoded.

“Revolutionary Guard naval forces a few minutes ago test fired a powerful torpedo in the Strait of Hormuz. This torpedo is capable of destroying enemy warships and submarines at any depth and moving at any speed,” state television said.

The test comes in the middle of Gulf wargames that started on Friday. Iran earlier in the wargames said it had tested a radar-evading missile and an underwater missile that can outpace enemy warships.

The Pentagon said today it is possible Iran has produced missiles capable of evading radar and sonar as Tehran has stated in recent days, but added that the Iranians have been known to “boast and exaggerate”.

Iran said in February last year that it had started a mass production line of torpedoes. The Islamic Republic has three elderly Kilo class diesel-electric Russian submarines. These are capable of firing homing torpedoes but military analysts say these vessels are unsuited to modern naval combat. Earlier in the day, Rear Admiral Mohammad-Ebrahim Dehqani said Iran would have further important announcements to make over the course of the wargames.