Iran displays missile capability amid Gaza war
Iran's strikes this week in Pakistan, Iraq and Syria have brought back into the spotlight its ballistic missile programme, which has ground forward over the past 40 years despite sanctions.
On Tuesday, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hit what it called «a spy headquarters» in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and «terrorist» targets in Syria.
Its forces also fired on «an Iranian terrorist group» in Pakistan, which said the attack killed two children and riposted with a strike on Iranian territory that Tehran said claimed nine lives.
Iran's missile capabilities are one reason why Western attention remains fixated on this regional power, as the Islamic republic and its proxies step up attacks in the Middle East in solidarity with Gaza's Hamas militants in their war with Israel.
— Range and accuracy -
The massive Iranian missile armoury covers ranges from short (300 kilometres or 186 miles) to medium (300-1,000 kilometres) and long (up to 2,000 kilometres).
A majority are produced or assembled locally thanks to Iran's advanced industries and university sector.
«Hardly a year goes by without an Iranian announcement about the development of a new type of ballistic or cruise missiles,» said Eva Koulouriotis, an independent expert.
Tehran has gradually advanced into solid-propellant missiles — which are «easier to store and much quicker to bring into action than liquid-fuel ones, so they are much more useful tactically,» said Jeremy Binnie of British private intelligence firm Janes.
«The Iranians have taken Scud technology from the 300 kilometres of the missiles they received in the 1980s to 1,600 kilometres or more,» he added, as well as developing «much better guidance systems… enabling them to carry out
