Iran has released footage of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ new “missile city” – an underground facility stocked with advanced ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as “electronic warfare” equipment. The latest provocative move is seen by security analysts as an attempt to pressure U.S. President Joe Biden into easing sanctions as regional tensions mount over Iran’s accelerating nuclear activities.
The new facility, which has not yet been publicly located and is believed to be one of many similar facilities, will enable the IRGC Navy to “launch precision missiles from underground, launch naval missiles with different ranges, firing at 360-degree[s]”, according to Alireza Tangsiri, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards’ naval unit.
Iranian news broadcasts claimed that the facility possesses equipment to detect enemy signals and would “increase the range and destruction power in operations”. It is understood the military hardware on parade included missiles capable of changing target after launch.
IRGC commander Major General Hossein Salami said in the broadcast: “What we see today is a small section of the great and expansive missile capability of Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces”.
Last summer, the chief of the IRGC’s Navy division boasted that the country had built underground “missile cities” along the Gulf coastline (both onshore and offshore), warning of a “nightmare for Iran’s enemies”. The announcement came shortly after an explosion occurred in Iran’s eastern mountains that Western security analysts believe took place at an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.
Iran is believed to have one of the region’s largest and most advanced missile programmes, according to U.S. intelligence reports.
