Iranian naval forces announced plans to deploy its warships in the Atlantic for five-month-long mission.

Deputy Chief of Navy Force of the Iranian Army said that the Iranian navy will send warships to deploy in the Atlantic from March.

Iran sees the presence of U.S. aircraft carriers in the Gulf as a security concern and its navy has sought to counter that by showing the flag near American waters.

A flotilla will leave for the Atlantic early in the Iranian new year, starting from March, Iran’s naval deputy commander said.

“The Atlantic Ocean is far and the operation of the Iranian naval flotilla might take five months,” Rear-Admiral Touraj Hassani was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

He said Sahand, a newly-built destroyer, would be one of the warships. Sahand has a flight deck for helicopters and Iran says it is equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles and has electronic warfare capabilities.

Sahand which is a new generation of Moudge-class destroyers joined Iran’s naval fleet in the Persian Gulf on December 1, 2018.