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Iran's Missile Arsenal Growing in Size, Reach, and Accuracy
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Farzin Nadimi - On Aug. 25, Brig.-Gen. Mohammad Reza Qaraei Ashtiani, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, affirmed prioritizing Iran's strategic missile capability above other force multipliers. On Dec. 12, President Ebrahim Raisi's first budget request to parliament included the equivalent of 210 million euros dedicated to ballistic missile projects. Iran has unveiled ten new ballistic missiles and three new satellite launch vehicles (SLVs) since 2015. It has also revealed the existence of multiple underground missile complexes, called "missile cities." Almost every province is believed to have at least one deeply buried ballistic missile storage and launch site. Iran is developing missiles with greater accuracy. If Iran achieves accuracy of 10 meters or better with medium-range missiles, this could be a game-changer. Iran has already demonstrated this degree of precision with shorter-range systems, such as the September 2019 strike on Saudi Aramco facilities and the January 2020 strike on U.S. targets at al-Asad Air Base in Iraq. A conventional missile attack using precision-guided systems could replicate the geopolitical effects of a small nuclear weapon. The writer is an associate fellow at the Washington Institute.