How Advanced Can Iran’s Military Capabilities Get?

How Advanced Can Iran’s Military Capabilities Get?

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Since 1992, Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines, and fighter planes.

Iran is increasing its might in the defense industry every day and is successfully test-firing different types of defense equipment, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said.

He added that Iran’s long-range missiles can be guided until hitting their targets thousands of kilometers beyond the country’s borders with a small margin of error.

In recent years, Iran has made major breakthroughs in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing important military equipment and systems, including a variety of domestically-manufactured drones. The Islamic Republic unveiled its first long-range combat drone, Karrar (Striker), in August 2010. Since then, the country has manufactured a variety of other high-tech surveillance and combat drones. The country has so far unveiled various domestically produced drones, including Ababil, Fotros, Hazem, Karrar (long range attack drone), Mohajer, Sarir, Shahed 129, Yasir and Zohal, although some of its technology certainly resembles other, and certainly more test-proven, Western platforms.

Iran also possesses long-range surface-to-surface Shahab missiles with a range about 2,000 km (1,250 miles) that are capable of reaching Israel and U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

The nuclear agreement signed between the Western powers and Iran has placed bans on the research and development of missiles that could carry nuclear warheads. Iranian diplomats who reached the deal with the six world claim that since Iran has no plan to build nuclear-related missiles, its missile program is essentially not restricted by the deal.

Iran is considered to have the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East, but has repeatedly said that its military might poses no threat to other countries, reiterating that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.