Military of Iran

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Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran
Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistic
Service branches '
Headquarters Tehran
Leadership
Supreme Commander Âyatollâh Ali Khamenei
Minister of Defense Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar
Expenditures
Budget $6.3 billion (2005)
Percent of GDP 3.5% (2005)
Industry
Domestic suppliers Defense Industries Organization

Iran Aviation Industries Organization
Iran Electronics Industries (IEI)
Related articles
History Military history of Iran

Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran
Dhofar Rebellion
Siege of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs
Iran-Iraq War
Operation Praying Mantis Operation Prime Chance
Ranks Air Force Ranks Insignia

Army Ranks Insignia
Navy Ranks Insignia
IRGC Ranks Insignia

The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: نيروهای مسلح جمهوری اسلامی ايران) include the IRIA (Persian: ارتش جمهوری اسلامی ایران) , the IRGC (Persian: سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی), and the Police Force[1] (Persian: نيروی انتظامی جمهوری اسلامی ایران).

These forces total about 545,000 active personnel.[2] All branches of armed forces fall under the command of General Headquarters of Armed Forces (ستاد کل نیروهای مسلح). Ministry of Defense & Armed Forces Logistics is responsible for planning logistics and funding of the armed forces and is not involved in in-the-field military operational command.

The Basij is a paramilitary volunteer force controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards; it has a claimed membership of 12.6 million, including women, of which perhaps 3 million are combat capable. There are a claimed 2,500 battalions of which some are full-time personnel.[5] Globalsecurity.org says that there are 90,000 full-time Basij personnel and 300,000 Basij reservists.[6]

Iran's military was called the Middle East's most powerful by General John Abizaid chief of United States Central Command (U.S. forces' commander in the region). He did not count the Israel Defense Forces, because it does not fall in his area of operations. [7]

Contents

[edit] History

Main article: Military history of Iran

With thousands of years of recorded history, and due to an unchanging geographic (and subsequently geopolitical) condition , Iran (previously known as Persia in the West until 1935) has had a long, varied, and checkered military culture and history, ranging from triumphant and unchallenged ancient military supremacy affording effective superpower status in its day, to a series of near catastrophic defeats (beginning with the destruction of Elam) at the hand of previously subdued peripheral nations (including Greece, Arabia, and the Asiatic nomadic tribes at the Eastern boundary of the lands traditionally home to the Iranian people).

In its time, Iran has rapidly dispatched ancient powers such as Babylon; its kings have sat enthroned as Pharaoh in Egypt; repeatedly held off, sometimes defeated, the otherwise successful armies of Rome (most memorably recording the submissive demeanor of a captured Roman Caesar); and apparently affected even a presumably hostile Greek historian to dedicate an entire book considering in detail the pseudo-military culture of the ancient Persians of Shahanshah Darius the Great.

Iranian military actions and martial culture have also left Iran with a rich legacy of contributions to military arts, weapons, tactics, strategy, and conduct of the mankind. The word navy is a term derived from Persian Naavs (ships) of Achaemenid military expeditions against ancient Greece. Those very same expeditions entailed crossings of entire armies from Asia to Europe over military bridges constructed by extending a floating platform of ships from the Asian land mass to Europe.

One of the earliest and most effective manifestations of light cavalry equipped with stand-off weapons were the bow and arrow equipped Parthian Cavalry.

The first Knights complete with shinning armor and plumed helmets were Sassanid Iranian nobles, and European heraldry is directly traceable to the Iranian Knights and overall culture of (lone) heroes and mythic figures such as Rostam, Zal, Bahram, etc.

And it was the sovereign head of the Iranian Army that marched un-opposed into Babylon that decreed the first codec of the rights of conquered people and nations.

And this is the same country that suffered completely unexpected and decisive defeats at the hands of Alexander the Great, and later Muslim Arabs, seemingly at the height of its might. And later on felt the full force of the brutally violent and destructive West-ward Mongol tribes.

[edit] Combat history and operations

[edit] Commanders

One of Iran's 3 Kilo class submarines
One of Iran's 3 Kilo class submarines
Iran has 29 Tor-M1 mobile air defense systems.
Iran has 29 Tor-M1 mobile air defense systems.
  • Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, in Persian: فرمانده کل نیروهای مسلح)
  • Major General Hasan Firuzabadi (Head of the Armed Forces General Command Headquarters, in Persian: رییس ستاد کل نیروهای مسلح)
  • Army (Artesh)
    • Major General Ataollah Salehi (Commander-in-Chief of the Army, in Persian: فرمانده کل ارتش)
    • Brigadier General Abdolrahim Mousavi (Chief of the Joint Staff of the Army)
    • Brigadier General Mohammad-Hossein Dadress (Commander of the Ground Force)
    • Brigadier General Karim Ghavami (Commander of the Air Force)
    • Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari (Commander of the Navy)
  • IRGC
    • Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari (Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC, in Persian: فرمانده کل سپاه پاسداران)
    • Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi (Chief of the Joint Staff of the IRGC)[8]
    • Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Zahedi (Commander of IRGC Ground Force)[9]
    • Brigadier General Hossein Salami (Commander of IRGC Air Force)[9]
    • Rear Admiral Morteza Saffari (Commander of IRGC Navy)[10]
    • Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi (Commander of Basij forces)[11]
    • Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani (Commander of Quds Force)[12]
  • Iranian Police
    • Brigadier General Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moghaddam (Commander-in-Chief of the Police, in Persian: فرمانده کل نیروی انتظامی)
  • Rear Admiral Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar (Minister of Defense, in Persian: وزیر دفاع و پشتیبانی نیروهای مسلح)

[edit] Budget

See also: Economy of Iran

Iran's 2005 defense budget was estimated to be $6 billion by London's International Institute for Strategic Studies. This was $91 per capita, a lower figure than other Persian Gulf nations, and lower as a percentage of gross national product than all other Gulf states except the United Arab Emirates.[13]

[edit] Defense industry

Main articles: Iranian military industry and List of military equipment manufactured in Iran
The United States delivered 79 F-14 Tomcat fighter jets to Iran before 1979.
The United States delivered 79 F-14 Tomcat fighter jets to Iran before 1979.

Under the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran's military industry was limited to assembly of foreign weapons. In the assembly lines that were put up by American firms, such as Bell, Litton and Northrop, Iranian workers put together a variety of helicopters, aircraft, guided missiles, electronic components and tanks. [14]

In 1973 the Iran Electronics Industries (IEI) was established. [15] The company was set up in a first attempt to organize the assembly and repair of foreign-delivered weapons. [16] The Iranian Defense Industries Organization was the first to succeed in taking a step into what could be called a military industry by reverse engineering Soviet RPG-7, BM21, and SAM-7 missiles in 1979. [17]

Nevertheless, most of Iran's weapons before the Islamic revolution were imported from the United States and Europe. Between 1971 and 1975, the Shah went on a buying spree, ordering $8 billion in weapons from the United States alone. This alarmed the United States Congress, which strengthened a 1968 law on arms exports in 1976 and renamed it the Arms Export Control Act. Still, the United States continued to sell large amounts of weapons to Iran until the 1979 Islamic Revolution. [18]

After the Islamic revolution, Iran found itself severely isolated and lacking technological expertise. Because of economic sanctions and a weapons embargo put on Iran by the United States, Iran was forced to rely on its domestic arms industry for weapons and spare parts since there were very few countries willing to do business with Iran. [19] The Islamic Revolutionary Guards were put in charge of creating what is today known as the Iranian military industry. Under their command Iran's military industry was enormously expanded, and with the Ministry of Defense pouring investment into the missile industry, Iran soon accumulated a vast arsenal of missiles. [20]

Since 1992, it also has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, guided missiles, submarines, and a fighter plane.[21]

In recent years, official announcements have highlighted the development of weapons such as the Fajr-3 (MIRV), Hoot, Kowsar, Fateh-110, Shahab-3 missile systems and a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles, at least one of which Israel claims has been used to spy on Israel. [22] In 2006, Iran spied on the American aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan for 25 minutes without being detected before returning safely to its base.[23][24][25]

[edit] Ballistic programme

Main article: Iran's missile forces

On November 2, 2006, Iran fired unarmed missiles to begin 10 days of military war games. Iranian state television reported "dozens of missiles were fired including Shahab-2 and Shahab-3 missiles. The missiles had ranges from 300 km to up to 1300 km. Iranian experts have made some changes to Shahab-3 missiles installing cluster warheads in them with the capacity to carry 1,400 bombs." These launches come after some United States-led military exercises in the Persian Gulf on October 30, 2006, meant to train for blocking the transport of weapons of mass destruction [26]. Iran is also believed to have started the development of an ICBM/IRBM missile project, known as Ghadr-110 with a range of more than 3000 km; the program is paralleled with advancement of a satellite launcher named IRIS. Iran is also working on an ICBM with an original range of over 5000km said to be the Shahab-5.

[edit] Weapons of mass destruction

Main article: Iran and weapons of mass destruction

Israel and some western nations have alleged that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. [27] The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, in its February 2006 report on Iran's nuclear program, said it had no evidence of this. Recently, the United States of America released an intelligence report that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not developing a nuclear detonation device. However Iran is currently attempting to create the radioactive fuel that could potentially be used in a nuclear weapon[28] [29]

Iran ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention in 1997. Iranian troops and civilians suffered tens of thousands of casualties from Iraqi chemical weapons during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. As a result, Iran has publicly stood against the use of chemical weapons, making numerous vitriolic comments against Iraq's use of such weapons in international forums.

Even today, more than eighteen years after the end of the Iran-Iraq war, about 30,000 Iranians are still suffering and dying from the effects of chemical weapons that several western governments provided Iraq with during the war. The need to manage the treatment of such a large number of casualties has placed Iran’s medical specialists in the forefront of the development of effective treatment regimes for chemical weapons victims, and particularly for those suffering from exposure to mustard gas. [30]

Iran ratified the Biological Weapons Convention in 1973.[31] Iran has advanced biology and genetic engineering research programs supporting an industry that produces world-class vaccines for both domestic use and export.[32] The dual-use nature of these facilities mean that Iran, like any country with advanced biological research programs, could easily produce biological warfare agents.

[edit] References

  1. ^ سایت اطلاع رسانی نیروی انتظامی جمهوری اسلامی ایران
  2. ^ IISS Military Balance 2006, Routledge for the IISS, London, 2006, p.187
  3. ^ IISS Military Balance 2006, Routledge for the IISS, London, 2006, p.187
  4. ^ IISS Military Balance 2006, Routledge for the IISS, London, 2006, p.187
  5. ^ IISS Military Balance 2008, p.244
  6. ^ GlobalSecurity.org, [1]
  7. ^ Iran Favors Asymmetric Strategy In Joust With US
  8. ^ [www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5206 Iran’s top military commanders die in plane crash]
  9. ^ a b [2]
  10. ^ Iran to hold large-scale naval war games
  11. ^ Niruyeh Moghavemat Basij Mobilisation Resistance Force
  12. ^ Iran Revolutionary Guards expect key changes in high command
  13. ^ Iran's defense spending 'a fraction of Persian Gulf neighbors'
  14. ^ Dar Al Hayat
  15. ^ [3]
  16. ^ NTI: Country Overviews: Iran: Missile Chronology
  17. ^ NTI: Country Overviews: Iran: Missile Chronology
  18. ^ A Code of Conduct for Weapons Sales Video Transcript
  19. ^ http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htproc/articles/20041103.aspx
  20. ^ Dar Al Hayat
  21. ^ FOXNews.com - Iran Launches Production of Stealth Sub - U.S. & World
  22. ^ British Broadcasting Corporation, Hezbollah drone flies over Israel, 7 December 2004
  23. ^ 5 minutes video
  24. ^ RIAN, Iranian drone plane buzzes U.S. aircraft carrier in Persian Gulf, May 30, 2006
  25. ^ Iran Uses UAV To Watch US Aircraft Carrier On Gulf Patrol
  26. ^ [4][dead link]
  27. ^ BBC NEWS | Middle East | Q&A: Iran and the nuclear issue
  28. ^ 'No proof' of Iranian nuclear weapons programme | World news | guardian.co.uk
  29. ^ [5]
  30. ^ Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, [6]
  31. ^ Signatories of the Biological Weapons Convention
  32. ^ Razi Institute produces dlrs 100 m worth of vaccines, serums a year. Retrieved on 2006-04-22.

[edit] See also

Iran Portal

[edit] External links


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Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran
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