Saturday, January 11, 2020

Iran attack: How strong is Iran's military?


A US Defense Department report describes the country's missile forces as the largest in the Middle East.
It's not possible to give precise figures but the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies says Iran has thousands of missiles of more than a dozen different types.
An Iranian media outlet reported that Fateh and Qiam missiles were used in the attack on the US base.
Military analysts have also pointed to the use of these types based on images of the attack sites.
The Qiam-1 missile has been widely produced since 2011, has a range of up 700km and a payload (an indication of how much explosive material it can carry) of 750kg. It was used by Iran against IS fighters in June 2017.
The Fateh class of missiles, which first went into service in the early 2000s, have a slightly lower payload.
The variations of the Shahab-3 intermediate range ballistic missile have payloads of more than 750kg and ranges upwards of 1,500km.
For comparison, a US-built F35 fighter jet has a payload of up to 10,000kg.
Iran has up to 50 medium range ballistic missile launchers and up to 100 short range ballistic missile launchers, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a UK-based think tank.
Iran is also testing space technology to allow it to develop longer range inter-continental missiles, according to the US report.
"Iran has a highly developed missile force with weapons of a variety of ranges" says Jonathan Marcus, the BBC's Defence and diplomatic correspondent.
"They are reasonably accurate - but not as accurate or as reliable as advanced western systems."

The long-range missile programme was put on hold by Iran following the 2015 nuclear deal, according to the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), but this may now have resumed given the uncertainty surrounding that deal.

More Info- How strong is Iran's military?



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