Iranian officials have revealed a massive, “very complex” alleged plot by Israeli intelligence to sabotage the Islamic Republic’s defense sector involving the installation of faulty, foreign-sourced connector components fitted with explosives on advanced domestic defense hardware, including missiles and drones.
“About nine years ago, in 2014, when officers from the Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Organization were working on the enemy’s networks…they discovered a focus by the Mossad on topics involving a connector component for use in the defense industry. They managed to obtain basic information [on the component] in 2015,” Deputy Defense Minister Reza Talaei-Nik told local media in a television news report this week.
The “very professional network” of agents that “infiltrated” the country's defense sector planned “to place an undetectable circuit in some part of the missile’s connector to cause it to explode at a specific time,” damaging production lines and harming defense industry employees, or otherwise preventing the weapons from being used as intended in an emergency, Deputy Defense Minister Mehdi Farahi said.
Iran detected the faulty connectors before they could be introduced into defense production, and even salvaged them by detaching compromised sectors and rebuilding them for safe use, according to Iranian media.
The attempted sabotage “was monitored from the beginning and completely neutralized with the arrest of members of the network,” Farahi said, with the Mossad said to have been caught off-guard and left unaware that the plot had been compromised until recently.
“The enemy did not notice” that Iran had detected the plot, and “wanted to surprise us with an operation against defense systems, but they were taken by surprise,” Talaei-Nik said, adding that the sabotage plot would have cost Iran’s defense sector up to $19 million if the operation went off as planned. The plot was characterized as “one of the biggest attempts at sabotage” by an enemy power to date.
Talaei-Nik said Iran’s strategic missiles’ effectiveness in deterrence have made them a major target for enemy industrial espionage and sabotage. He added that dramatic advances in the defense sector in recent years have allowed Iran to gain self-sufficiency in a majority of areas, while continuing “multilayer intelligence and security projects” of buying components to fool enemy spies.
The connector plot was said to have been uncovered with the help of a civilian businessperson involved in procurement of components abroad. The buyer took note of the unusual interest a foreign supplier of components had shown in Iran’s domestic market, as well as the parts’ distribution, and subsequently contacted the Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Organization. Intelligence officials consequently used the information to help identify the rest of the network involved in the plot.
Israeli officials declined to comment on the allegations.
Iranian television accompanied Defense Ministry officials’ comments with footage of rugged, military-grade, circular high-density connectors, apparently used to attach components like guidance computers and other electronics to weapons. The footage showed that the connectors could be detonated at will, which, if done during a drone or missile's flight would result in projectiles flying off course and failing to reach their targets.
Israel and Iran have engaged one another in a decades-long covert war of sabotage attacks, espionage and assassinations going back to the 1980s. In the 2000s, the Mossad and European intelligence operatives successfully infected systems associated with Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, which Tel Aviv has long claimed (but never proven) has military purposes, with a virus known as Stuxnet.
The constant threat of foreign sabotage has played a major role in Iran’s efforts to develop a highly advanced domestic defense industry, including homegrown defense electronics. Last month, an Iranian defense industry spokesman revealed that the domestic military industry now accounts for about 90 percent of the country’s defense needs.
Talaei-Nik indicated that Iran’s sourcing of domestically-sourced components and raw materials is higher than it was even just several years ago. Along with switching to domestic parts, a comprehensive localization program has been implemented, including the creation of technical laboratories at which all foreign-made components can be carefully checked for viruses, bugs or faulty equipment.