Iran is no match for the United States or China and several other nations in raw
military capabilities. Nonetheless, Tehran has built up a massive number of missiles to ensure
anyone who tries to attack or invade would be punished in the most awful of asymmetric ways.
According to experts, the weapon’s trapezoidal grid fins indicate it could be equipped with
some sort of homing guidance. The Guard also displayed its new Shahed-136 suicide drone.
Iran’s leadership often uses military parades to showcase its evolving
arsenal and demonstrate that it has kept pace in the global arms race. In fact,
Iran boasts the largest and most versatile ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East.
Missile Cities.
The Iranian government has invested heavily in its ballistic missiles program in recent years.
Since 2015, three previously hidden underground missile complexes have come to light.
Analysts believe ballistic missile storage and launch sites likely accompany each
so-called missile city that is unveiled.
Iran has more than 3,000 ballistic missiles, according to Commander of U.S. Central Command
Gen. Kenneth McKenzie. This arsenal includes various accurate, short- and
medium-range solid-fuel missiles. “At a military level my concern is first of all
that they do not have a nuclear weapon, but I am also very concerned about the
remarkable growth and efficiency of their ballistic missile program,” McKenzie said.
In February, Tehran displayed its homegrown Khaybar Sheikan missile. With a range of 1,450
kilometers (900 miles), the weapon is capable of targeting the rogue state’s adversaries.
Since Iran’s military lacks airpower and precision-strike capability,
it relies on its missile development program to be able to strike its neighbors.
The regime’s proxies are active across the region, including in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq,
and these groups would not function without a constant supply of weapons transferred from Iran.
An Offensive Focus.
In March, the Guard Corps claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck near a U.S.
Consulate compound under construction in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have carried out dozens of rocket attacks targeting U.S. assets in
the region before. However, the use of ballistic missiles in this attack marks an escalation.
Missiles can carry out defensive and offensive functions.
While Tehran insists its emphasis on weapons development is purely defensive,
its support of offensive actions carried out by proxies in the region indicates otherwise,
and Iran’s ideological ambition centers on exporting the Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s buildup of ballistic missiles specifically poses a threat to Israel and to U.S. personnel
in the Middle East. More concerning, Iran’s nuclear breakout time has shrunk to mere weeks.
While its military will still need to develop the core of the weapon
and attach it to the warhead of a missile, Iran is getting closer to doing just that.
Iran has been developing ballistic missile capabilities based on Russia, North Korean,
and Chinese technology or weapons systems since the early 1980s. During its prolonged
war against Iraq in the 1980s, Iran reportedly launched more than 600 ballistic missiles.
According to the 2016 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community,
Iran’s ballistic missiles are inherently capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. government has also noted that “Iran has the largest
and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East.”
According to an April 2021 report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies,
“Iran has between six and eight liquid-fuel ballistic missiles and up to 12 solid-fuel
systems, depending on how different variants of systems are counted.
It is estimated to have up to 100 road-mobile launchers for shortrange ballistic missiles
(SRBMs), perhaps 50 launchers for medium-range ballistic missiles
(MRBMs), and well over 1,000 associated missiles.”
A November 2019 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report entitled “Iran Military Power” found
that Iran’s ballistic missile program is an important plank of Iran’s hybrid approach to
warfare that helps it overcome shortcomings in its conventional forces, as it is militarily
outspent by its adversaries and hampered in its procurement efforts by international sanctions.
According to the DIA report, “Lacking a modern air force, Iran has embraced ballistic missiles
as a long-range strike capability to dissuade its adversaries in the region—particularly
the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia—from attacking Iran. Iran can launch salvos of missiles
against large area targets, such as military bases and population centers, throughout the
region to inflict damage, complicate adversary military operations, and weaken enemy morale.”