Top 5 Deadliest Weapons in Iran’s Arsenal

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force demonstrated its capability to lob ballistic missiles at targets over 1,000 km away on Tuesday, firing four Kheibar-Shekan (‘Castle Buster’, ‘Fortress Buster’) missiles at terrorists in Idlib, Syria from Khuzestan province in Iran’s southwest.

Tuesday’s strikes broke Iran’s range record in the use of missiles in combat, and constituted the first major missile attack from the IRGC’s Khuzestan bases since the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988.

Observers quickly dubbed the Kheibar-Shekan one of Iran’s “most advanced solid-propellant missile system[s],” and focused on the strategic implications of the missile’s deployment. Because if the Islamic Republic can use its long-range strike weapons to target terrorists in faraway places, it could very easily use the same capability to target Israel – its regional arch nemesis, or any one of the dozen-or-so major American military bases across the Middle East, in the event of enemy aggression.

‘So what?’ readers who know a thing or two about Iran’s missile capabilities might ask. After all, the Islamic Republic is known to have developed and fielded more than a dozen other missiles with a range and capabilities similar to the Kheibar-Shekan, including the Ashura, the Fajr-3 and the Khorramshahr. But in the capitals of countries considering a surprise attack against Iran, Tehran’s use of its missiles in combat carries an important psychological message.

“Iran can be expected to continue devoting substantial money and manpower to developing more effective, longer-range ballistic and cruise missiles and drones,” the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an influential DC-based pro-Israeli think tank said in a report last July. “It will do so not only to boost its deterrence and negotiating leverage, but also to gradually increase psychological and kinetic pressure on the United States and Israel.”

Iran not only “can be expected to” increase its missile power, as the Washington Institute suggests, but is actively doing so, not only upgrading its ballistic and cruise missile capabilities, but actively pursuing advanced technologies possessed by only a handful of top military powers, such as ramjet air-breathing engines, and hypersonic technologies.

Iran made its first foray into hypersonic missiles last year, unveiling the Fattah-1 (lit. ‘Conqueror’ or ‘Victory Giver’) – a new hypersonic missile with a 1,400 km range which can accelerate up to Mach 13-15, in June 2023. The missile can maneuver in flight, which together with its blazing-fast speeds allows it to evade all existing and prospective air defense systems. The Fattah-1 is powered by a two-stage, solid fuel engine.

Just a few months after the Fattah-1 was unveiled, Iran showed off a cruise missile with a hypersonic glide vehicle known as the Fattah-2. That mystery missile’s characteristics are unknown, and, unlike the Fattah-1, it remains unclear whether the weapon has been tested. Nonetheless, Iran’s work in this direction clearly demonstrates that the country is striving not only to match, but surpass the capabilities of the United States (which still does not have a functional hypersonic capability).

On January 3, 2020, a US drone strike killed senior Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and IRGC Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iran responded by bombarding a pair of US bases in Iraq with ballistic missiles.

In honor of the slain Iraqi commander, the Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) aerospace manufacturer decided to name Iran’s newest and most advanced naval cruise missile in his honor.

Launchable from the ground, from warships or from military aircraft, the Abu Mahdi puts Iran into a small club of nations with the capability to produce long-range anti-ship cruise missiles. It’s unknown how many Abu Mahdis the IAIO has been able to manufacture since the system’s introduction into service, but if they are deployed in large numbers, they can effectively provide Iran’s military with total control over the waters of the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and blanket almost the entirety of the Arabian Sea. What’s more, if fielded aboard Iran’s Makran forward base ship, the Iranian Navy could tote the missiles around with them in mini-flotillas to virtually any point on Earth.

Along with advanced missiles, Iran is known for its world-renowned drone design capabilities, excelling in the development and production of all kinds of rocket and turboprop-powered, reconnaissance, long-range strike, kamikaze and even flying wing drones.

Among the newest of these developments is the Mohajer-10 (lit. ‘Immigrant’ or ‘Holy Migrant’), a new, multipurpose UAV designed for surveillance missions, long-range strikes, electronic warfare and full-spectrum superiority.

The Mohajer-10 is the latest in a long lineup of Mohajer-series drones –whose origins go back to the 1980s and the Iran-Iraq War, where the Islamic Republic’s military and the IRGC first realized the importance of drones in modern warfare. Forty years on, even US media are forced to begrudgingly recognize Iran as one of the top five drone powers in the world.

Iran’s offensive missile and drone capabilities would mean very little if they could be easily decimated in a surprise enemy first strike. That’s why Tehran has put immense focus on both long and short-range radars capable of detecting intruding enemy missiles, drones and aircraft, and air defense missiles and electronic warfare systems to shoot them down.

While theorizing about the effectiveness of Iran’s dense, highly integrated air defense network is easy, actually proving its capabilities against enemy incursions is more difficult, requiring real-world examples. One such opportunity came on June 20, 2019, when a US RQ-4A Global Hawk BAMS-D spy drone flew accidentally-on-purpose into Iranian airspace over the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Iran to fire a missile from a Sevom Khordad air defense missile system and turn the $180 million piece of American military hardware into scrap metal.

The Sevom Khordad was built by Iran from the ground up, and features completely indigenous defense electronics and Iranian-made Taer-2B radar-guided solid fueled surface to air missiles (SAMs), and is named after the third day of the third month of the Iranian calendar, in honor of the liberation of the Iranian city of Khorramshahr from Iraqi forces in 1982.

Sevom Khordad batteries can be plugged into regional and national air defense systems, and can also fire shorter-range Sayyad SAMs 40-150 km in engagements against aircraft and drones.

The June 2019 shootdown of the Global Hawk by an IRGC-operated Sevom Khordad brought Iran and the US to the brink of war. The drone had ignored multiple radio warnings sent by Iran’s air defense troops before being targeted. President Trump was pressured by neocons in his administration to respond to the drone downing with attacks against Iranian missile sites, but ultimately decided against it. Tehran quickly revealed that it had communicated to Washington that it could have easily also shot down a manned Boeing P-8 Poseidon spy plane with nearly three dozen servicemen onboard at the same time that it shot down the Global Hawk, but didn’t do so to avoid escalation. Trump appeared moved by this information, saying he “appreciated” that the Iranians made the “very wise decision” not to shoot down the P-8. In any case, the IRGC said that the whole incident sent Washington a “clear message” that while Tehran does not want a conflict with the United States, it is “ready” for one.

Much has been said and written about Iran’s missile, drone and air defense capabilities, but far less about the potential of Iran’s ground forces. With a standing Army of some 350,000 men, and a 150,000 contingent of elite IRGC troops (plus 40,000 paramilitaries), the Islamic Republic has one of the largest active duty militaries in the Middle East, and a pool of over 350,000 reserve personnel to draw on in case of an emergency.

An army that size requires an array of tanks, armored and support vehicles, artillery, mortars, small arms, and protective equipment – all of which Iran has sought to source domestically, or, in more limited quantities, to buy from its Russian and Chinese partners.

One facet of Iran’s armored unit capabilities has received virtually no media attention is the Sayyad (lit. ‘Hunter’), a tiny, multipurpose tracked armored vehicle built by the Defense Industries Organization (DLO).

Much like Iran’s fleet of sea-going gunboats, which the IRGC has equipped with everything from machine guns to rocket launchers, the design philosophy behind the Sayyad seems to be that of creating a peppy and nimble quick reaction tankette for a wide variety of missions.

The vehicles were introduced into service with the ground forces in 2010, with their design based on Iran’s experiences in the Iran-Iraq War. Iran is estimated to have at least 150 of the tankettes in operation, and the DLO is continuing their manufacture.

Whether in the area of ballistic and hypersonic missiles, drones, anti-air missile defenses or armored vehicles, Iran’s defense design bureaus and military industrial complex have proven time and again through the past four-and-a-half decades that they are more than capable of facing off against powerful regional and large global adversaries, and forcing enemies to think twice before starting aggression which could quickly turn into a real-life battle of David vs. Goliath.