The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has built a massive underground missile base in a mountain fortress outside the western Iranian city of Kermanshah, an Israeli security think tank analysis based on satellite intelligence has claimed.
According to the IDF staff officer-run Alma Research and Education Center, Iran has three large underground facilities in the area, including a mountain base in Konesht Canyon, which has least 61 missile bunkers hidden from satellite snooping dug into it.
80 more missile bunkers are reportedly situated at the nearby Panj Pelleh site, with 2K12 Kub SAMs and Zu-23 anti-aircraft guns protecting the area from aerial attack.
Alma alleges that the Kermanshah base was used during the January 2020 Revolutionary Guard missile attack on a pair of US bases in Iraq following the murder of IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, which left over 100 US soldiers with traumatic brain injuries.
Iran has a broad range of ballistic and cruise missiles in its arsenal, and recently unveiled a new hypersonic missile known as the Fattah.
The Islamic Republic considers its arsenal of missiles as its main shield against enemy aggression, and has warned that it will not hesitate to use them against Israeli military and nuclear sites and US bases and carrier groups in the Persian Gulf if Tel Aviv or Washington attempts to carry out strikes against Tehran’s nuclear sites.
Tel Aviv has spent more than a decade accusing Iran of pursuing nukes. Tehran has denied that claim, saying nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction are not compatible with the Islamic faith, and pointing to Israel’s own suspected stock of nukes. Tel Aviv neither confirms nor denies possessing such weapons.