Iran's missile forces
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Military Branches | |
| Personnel | |
| Army History | |
| History of the Army Field Marshals |
|
| Equipment | |
| Current Equipment |
|
| Other | |
| Order of Battle | |
Despite earlier roots, Iran started its missile development program in earnest during its long and costly war with Iraq. At times, throughout the war Iran found that it could not strike certain Iraqi facilities or targets with its own forces. This resulted in an ambitious missile development programme that is still continuing today. Today, it possesses the second largest (behind the Democratic People's Republic of Korea—DPRK) ballistic missile force in the developing world[citation needed], and is near to developing a space launch vehicle named IRIS and medium-range and intercontinental ballistic missiles. A large number of Iran's ballistic missiles and/or long-range artillery rocket systems currently possess the capability to deliver conventional high explosive, submunition, chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological dispersion warheads.
The Iranian military controls the country's missile forces as a subsection of the Revolutionary Guards, a more ideologically driven parallel army within Iran.
Contents |
[edit] History
The development of ballistic missiles and long-range artillery rockets within Iran can be divided into three broad chronological stages: Pre-revolution (1977-1979); Post-revolution and the war with Iraq (1980-1988); and Post-war (1989-present). The latter two stages may themselves be subdivided into distinct phases. This development has been strongly influenced by a number of interrelated factors, all of which have varied considerably in importance over time. These include, but are not limited to,
- Necessities of war and the short distance to Iraqi strategic targets.
- Quantity and quality of missiles and missile-related technology acquired.
- Size and experience of the indigenous missile-related manpower pool.
- Capabilities of the Iranian military-industrial infrastructure.
- Desire to possess the capability to retaliate directly at Israel and U.S. military facilities within South Asia.
[edit] Post War Expansion (1988-Present)
Building on technology, and experience, obtained through the war with Iraq, a full scale missile program was developed to bring the country up to par, and possibly ahead of its regional rivals. The initial focus of the program was to develop long-range rocket artillery systems and ballistic missiles within two key areas: solid fueled systems and liquid fueled systems.
Additional resources were expended to develop portable and anti-aircraft systems as well such as the Misagh-2.
On November 2, 2006, Iran fired unarmed missiles to begin 10 days of military war games. Iranian state television reported "dozens of missiles were fired including Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 missiles. The missiles had ranges from 300 km to up to 2,000 km...Iranian experts have made some changes to Shahab-3 missiles installing cluster warheads in them with the capacity to carry 1,400 bombs." These launches come after some United States-led military exercises in the Persian Gulf on October 30, 2006, meant to train for blocking the transport of weapons of mass destruction [1].
[edit] Solid fuel program
The foundations for this were laid with the Oghab and Shahin-II missiles. These would lead the way for a number of other rocket artillery systems including Fajr, Nazeat, and Zelzal. The initial effort in this area relied heavily on technical help from the People's Republic of China in the form of assembly and manufacturing contracts during 1991 and 1992. Iran was quick to surpass the Chinese level of assistance and became self sufficient.
[edit] Liquid fuel program
After the war, Iran's experience of liquid fuel missiles had purely focused on the reverse engineering of Scud-B missiles. However, with the post war reorganisation the focus of the effort quickly changed and focused on assembly and maintenance. A domestic version of the Scud-B, known as Shahab-1, was developed and manufactured. This led to its successor the Shahab-2, a variant of the Scud-C, and finally the Shahab-3. All these programs relied heavily on Russian and North Korean assistance. In recent years, Iranians developed multi-stage Shahab-4, Shahab-5 and Shahab-6, which are derivations of North Korean Taepodong. Iranian engineers participated in North Korean Taepodong-2 missile launch on July 4th, 2006.[citation needed]
Since the end of the war, Iran has consistently attempted to recruit foreign help, as well as its large and highly qualified expatriate population, into its missile program. Iranian expatriates who left with the revolution have been slow to return, but many are now doing so and thus heralding a new age for Iran's missile development programme with their tremendous wealth of technical experience.
[edit] Specific Missile Programs
[edit] Fajr-3
The Fajr-3 (MIRV) is currently Iran's most advanced ballistic missile. It is a domestically developed and produced liquid fuel missile with an unknown range. What makes it Iran's most advanced rocket is that it has multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles (MIRV) capabilities. Its MIRV capability gives it more possibility of avoiding anti-missile SAMs.
The missile was last launched during Holy Prophet wargames, which was the IRGC' largest naval wargames ever.
Please note that this is a different system from the Fajr-3 artillery rocket.
[edit] Shahab-3
Shahab-3 was the first Intermediate-range ballistic missile that was built by Iran's military. Its first model, also known as Shahab-3A has a range of 1300km. Soon after Iran came with a new model called Shahab-3B, which has a range of 2000km, and can carry a heavier warhead. Making this missile was a major step in Iran's missile industry, and it opened the way to longer range missiles. Shahab-3D is Iran's latest Shahab model, which has an even higher precision and a greater range.
[edit] Shahab-4 (planned)
The Shahab-4 liquid propelled missile is a shelved program which is supposed to be Iran's first missile to bring satellites into orbit.
[edit] List of Missiles
Multiple rocket launcher rockets, sometimes called Katyushas
Short-range ballistic missiles
- Samid Artillery Rocket
- Tondar-69 Artillery Rocket
- Shahin-II Artillery Rocket
- Naze'at Artillery Rocket
- Zelzal Artillery Rocket
- Fateh-110
- Saegheh
Medium-range ballistic missiles
Long-range ballistic missiles
Anti-aircraft missiles
- Misagh-1
- Misagh-2
- Sayyad-1
- Shahab Thaqeb
Anti-tank missiles
Anti-ship missiles
Rocket Torpedoes
[edit] Inventory
Iran has an arsenal of short-range, liquid-fueled missiles including the SCUD B and SCUD C, and is now able to produce SCUD type missiles on its own. The Aerospace Industries Organization, a subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense, supports the manufacturing process by engaging in SCUD missile restoration. Its short-range missile inventory also includes solid-fueled missiles, such as the Tondar-69 and the Fateh-110.
Iran has six operational Shahab-3 brigades, the first of which was established in July 2003. These are mainly equipped with standard variants, but with others described as enhanced Shahab-3 variants, with ranges of 1300-km, 1500-km and 2000-km respectively. [2]
[edit] External links
| Military of the Islamic Republic of Iran |  |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iranian Army | Iranian Navy | Iranian Air Force | IRGC | |||||
