The Drive

Iran’s fake aircraft carrier – which appears to have sunk and could now a major shipping hazard – certainly captured the most interest during the country’s recent major exercises in and around the strategic Strait of Hormuz. However, the drills also featured what were apparently buried launchers for short-range ballistic missiles, which one top Iranian official referred to as “missile farm.”

In principle, this concept could help reduce the vulnerability of these weapons to pre-emptive strikes while still keeping them in place and ready to launch. It is something the U.S. military actually explored during the end of the Cold War as a way to protect its then state-of-the-art LGM-118A Peacekeeper intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), but abandoned the idea for a host of reasons.

Videos from the exercises, dubbed Great Prophet 14, which took place at the end of July 2020, show the launch of at least two separate missiles from buried launchers. Experts and observers noted that one of these appears to be a variant of the Fateh-110, one of Iran’s most prolific short-range ballistic missile families, which reportedly includes variants with radar-seeking anti-radiation seekers and anti-ship capabilities. Iranian officials say the latest missiles in this series have a maximum range of around 186 miles. The other could be a previously unknown type with a similar overall size, but the video quality is low and it could just be another Fateh-110 version.

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