What was claimed
A video shows Iran launching missiles from beneath the sea.
Our verdict
False. This video was posted by the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2018 and shows a Russian submarine testing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Old video of Russian submarine test shared with false claim it shows Iran launching missiles
A video of missiles being launched “from beneath the sea” has been widely shared on social media with claims it shows Iran’s “terrifying capabilities”.
But this video has nothing to do with Iran. It actually dates back to 2018 and shows a Russian submarine testing intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The clip alongside a misleading caption has been liked thousands of times online, but using reverse image search we traced it back to a video posted on YouTube by the Russian Ministry of Defense in May 2018.
The video is captioned “SSBN Yuriy Dolgorukiy successfully tests 4 Bulava missiles in salvo”. Local outlets reported at the time that the Russian Navy test-launched four intercontinental ballistic missiles from a nuclear-powered submarine in the White Sea.
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In late January, Iran’s state media reported the country’s naval forces would carry out live-fire exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane between Iran, Oman and the UAE, on 1 and 2 February. But this reportedly did not take place.
You can read more of our fact checks about Iran here. During developing news events it’s important to rely on sources that are trustworthy and verifiable before sharing content which you see on social media. Our toolkit has tips on how to do this.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this clip is from 2018 and shows a Russian submarine test.