State TV says the exercise — which started Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman — will last eight days and cover about 97,000 square miles of Iranian territorial waters.
The exercises reflect Iran's desire to flex its military muscle at a time of a deepening standoff with the West over Tehran's controversial nuclear program. The West suspects it's aimed at building a nuclear weapon, a charge Iran denies.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard held five-day maneuvers in late April in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway for around 40 percent of the world's oil and gas supplies.