According to recent satellite images, Two American researchers believe Iran is developing its ballistic missile facilities with a view to adding more missiles. This conclusion was made by three top Iranian officials.
There was a photo of the Modarres military base taken in March and another one of Khojir missile production complex captured in April by the commercial satellite firm Planet Labs. These images reveal that there are over thirty newly constructed buildings at those two places near Tehran, says Reuters.
Many of the constructions have big mounds of earth around them which can absorb shock and limit Blast damage from nearby structures when they explode thus minimizing collateral damage as explained by Jeffrey Lewis who works for Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
Khojir expansion started in August last year while the other one began in October.
This was after an agreement reached on October 2022 where Iran agreed to supply rockets to Russia for its war against Ukraine that is still ongoing. Six sources told Reuters that Iran has given Russia many powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles thereby further deepening their military cooperation with US-sanctioned countries.
Some of these 400 missiles including Zolfaghar are part of Fateh-110 family, according to three Iranian informants.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanese Hezbollah both belonging to Iran-backed Axis of Resistance against Israel were also recipients of these missiles from Iran according to US officials.
Three senior Iranian officials confirmed that Modarres and Khojir are being expanded so as to produce more conventional ballistic missiles. According to one official,” Why not?”
The second mentioned remarked how certain new buildings would also make it feasible for doubling drone manufacturing hence selling drones and components such as missiles for the Russians, lending UAVs for Houthis plus Hezbollah members.
US worried about Iran’s expansion of ballistic missile sites
American fears any increase in Tehran’s missile or drone manufacturing because Iranian drones sustain Russian bombing in Ukrainian cities while groups supported by Iran like Hezbollah continue to endanger Israel.
Shahid Modarres and Khojir, the complexes overseen by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have for a long time been linked with developing and producing short and medium range ballistic missiles as well as rockets used in space programs in the country.
The U.S. promised “to use all means necessary to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran” during a United Nations Security Council meeting when it was reported that Iran was expanding its nuclear programme again.
The US, France, Britain and Germany said Tehran had violated the 2015 deal made to stop it from making atomic bombs by ramping up its nuclear activities far beyond permissible levels and failing to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency.
