August 09, 2019
Seemingly having forgotten what Iran announced one year ago, the Number Two man in the armed forces has said Iran is “constantly increasing” the range of its missiles.
But on June 19 of last year, in an obvious effort to calm American and European anger, Pasdar Commander Major General Mohammad-Ali Jafari announced that Iran has no plans to build any missile with a range greater than 2,000 kilometers.
That was contradicted August 5 of this year when Gen. Mahdi Rabbani, the deputy chief of the joint staff of the armed forces for operations, said, “Our missile power deters any regional or extra-regional acts of aggression—and the range of our missiles is also constantly increasing.”
Iranian officials have often—but not consistently—said Iran would not build any missiles with a range greater than 2,000 kilometers so as not to frighten Western Europeans. The range of 2,000 kilometers allows Iranian missiles to reach the Balkans (and Israel) but not Western Europe.
Iran has claimed a range for its largest missiles of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) for almost two decades.
While Rabbani said Iran is “constantly” increasing the range of its missiles, he did not give a maximum range for missiles today.
The range of Iranian missiles came after French President Emmanuel Macron called for the world to sit down with Iran to negotiate limits on its missiles. That prompted outrage in Tehran.
In August 2016, then-Defense Minister Hossain Dehqan said there was no limit on the range of Iran’s missiles, adding to the confusion of what was Iranian policy.
In June 2017, Bloomberg News said a secret Pentagon report assessed that Iran had only 50 Shahab-3 missiles, with a 2,000-kilometer range, in stock. That is a stunningly low number considering the Shahab-3 has been in service since 2003.
A Shahab-3’s maximum payload is assessed at 990 kilograms. By comparison, a single US B-1 bomber can carry a payload of 34,000 kilograms. In other words, two B-1s can carry a third more explosive power than all of Iran’s 50 Shahab-3’s put together. And the B-1s can return to make repeated bombing runs.
