Iran is preparing to send Russia launchers for short-range ballistic missiles that the US said Tehran sent to Russia last year for use against Ukraine, according to two Western security officials and a regional official quoted by the Reuters news agency.
This delivery may partly be a payment for Russian Sukhoi-35 fighter jets Iran has bought. Iran announced in January that it had received delivery of the first Su-35s, but did not say now many it had received or how many it had ordered. Unofficial reports speak of 25 to 50 of the jets being ordered.
The delivery of the Fath-360 launchers – if it occurs – would help support Russia’s grinding assault on its neighbor and reaffirm the deepening security ties between Moscow and Tehran.
With a 75-mile (120-km) range, the Fath-360 would give Moscow’s forces a new weapon to fire at Ukrainian frontline troops, nearby military targets, and population centers close to the border with Russia, analysts said.
The US last September said Iran delivered the missiles to Russia on nine Russian-flagged ships – which the US then sanctioned – and three sources told Reuters at that time that the launchers were not included, for some unknown reason.
Russia and Iran previously denied that Tehran had shipped the missiles or any other arms to aid the invasion of Ukraine. US, Ukrainian and European officials say Iran has provided Russia thousands of drones and artillery shells.
In an apparent reference to the Fath-360s, US Army General Christopher Cavoli, the commander of army forces in the US Central Command, last month told US lawmakers Iran had donated to Russia more than 400 short-range ballistic missiles.
There have been no public reports of Iran transferring any other kinds of short-range ballistic missiles to Moscow or of Russian forces using the Fath-360.
Analysts said there could have been another complication: Iran had to modify European-made commercial trucks on which to mount the launchers for its own Fath-360 arsenal, and it may have had to do the same for Russia, given its massive losses of vehicles in Ukraine.
“Why would they [Russia] buy inferior Iranian missiles? The only reason I could think of is that they cannot produce a sufficient number of their own missiles,” he said. “They’re not super accurate and they don’t carry a very large payload. But it just adds to Ukraine’s headaches.”
