Iran held a military parade on Thursday and unveiled what it claimed to be a new ballistic missile.
The missile is a medium-range ballistic rocket capable of traveling around 1,400km, according to Iranian media. Images of the missile were also shown in Iranian media. Called “Rezvan”, the missile was shown during a parade that marks Iran’s victory over Iraq in the 1980-1988 war.
With a range of 1,400 km, the missile would be capable of striking anywhere in the Middle East as well as in parts of Europe.
“It’s a precision ballistic missile,” the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami, said, according to Iran’s IRNA. Iran has increased both the precision and range of its missiles in recent years and it has been increasing its abilities to launch satellites and manufacture drones. Iran has reportedly provided Russia with Shahed-136 drones.
The Rezvan missile is a single-stage liquid-fueled ballistic missile. Iran says it can launch from a variety of mobile and fixed platforms. This means it could be transported to Iraq or Syria. In contrast, the Kheiber-Shekan missile is a solid fueled missile. It appears the showcasing of the missiles is tied to comments by Iran’s Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces warning the Gulf states against cooperation with the US and Israel. In recent weeks Iran has been increasing its rhetoric against the Gulf states. This is believed to be a kind of warning to Bahrain and the UAE.
In addition, Iranian technology enabled the Houthis in Yemen to increase the range of their ballistic missiles. Iran also supplies Hezbollah with missiles and precision-guided munitions which are considered a threat to Israel and to the wider region.
Iran has used its ballistic missiles to target US forces in 2020 and its Fateh series of missiles to attack Kurdish dissidents in Iraq in 2018. In addition, it used cruise missiles and drones to attack Saudi Arabia in 2019 and it used a drone to attack a ship in the Gulf of Oman in 2021.
Iran’s stash of missiles
Iran reportedly has around 20 types of ballistic missiles, some of which are replicates of missiles developed in North Korea, or have origins in Russian and Chinese missiles. Iran has sought to improve all of these older varieties of missiles in recent years, to improve their precision. Iran’s media has also mentioned that Iran has improved its Kheibar Shekan missile, which is also supposedly able to fly 1,450km.
