Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has fired two ballistic missiles from launchers disguised as standard shipping containers that were hosted aboard one of its sea base-like vessels. This particular combination, which has not been seen to date, greatly expands the reach with which those weapons could be used to strike potential targets by surprise, especially given that shipping containers can be embarked on any vessel that has the space to accommodate them.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Tuesday it has launched long-range ballistic missiles from a warship for the first time. The launch from the Shahid Mahdavi during naval maneuvers involved firing two ballistic missiles capable of striking targets up to 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) away.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency published a video of the launch and described the munition as a “long range” ballistic missile. The device deployed from a 40-foot container, giving analysts a sense of its maximum length. Open-source intelligence analysts have identified it as a Dezful medium-range ballistic missile, which has a claimed range of about 965 kilometers (600 miles) at a speed of Mach 7.
