Iran missile arsenal is huge and it includes all types of guided weaponized rockets deployed by the powerful nations today, both cruise and ballistic ones. It is estimated that around 25,000 missiles are secretly kept in store deep in underground facilities in the Zagros mountains. It must be pointed out that all the ballistic missiles in the arsenal of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Space Force have been developed and made by their local industry, using Iranian scientists and engineers.
All of Iran's short-range missiles have been developed from the Russian-made R-17 Elbrus (commonly known as the Scud-B), which Tehran had acquired from North Korea in the early 1980's, during the Iran-Iraq War. Their first local-production, short-range missile was the Shahab-1, which was propelled by a liquid-fuel, single-stage rocket and had a range of 350 km. This had been introduced into service in 1987. However, it was not an accurate weapon. This would be followed by the Shahab-2, which was developed from the North Korean Hwasong-5. Although it had a longer range, it still had the disadvantage of being propelled by a liquid-fuel rocket, being phased out in 2016.
It was the US and British invasion of Iraq in 2003 which led the Iranians to jump-start a real medium and long-range missile program. At the same time, in order to make their missile factories and research centers safer, they began to bore tunnels in the mountains and make large underground cities where they would relocate their factories and storage facilities. The first Iranian solid-fuel missile was the Fateh-110. With a speed of Mach 4, it is an accurate weapon that uses solid fuel. The advantage of solid fuel over liquid fuel is that you can store the missile fully-filled up with solid propellant and fire it right away, whenever you need, without having to refuel it. On the other hand, you can store a liquid-fuel missile only empty, and when you have to launch it, you must refuel it out in the open and it takes several hours.
Iran Missile Arsenal
Short-range: Qiam-1; Fateh-110; Fateh-313; Raad-500; Zolfhagar.
Medium-range: Dezful; Shahab-3; Emad; Khorramshahr; Fatah-1; Fatah-2; Kheiber-Shekan; Haj Qasem; Sejjil (the most advanced of the known Iranian missiles).
Iran's Missile Arsenal (video)
No Comments