In a recent lengthy interview, the deputy commander of the Iranian Army for Training Affairs Brig.-Gen. Alireza Sheikh discussed how Iran’s regime views its military doctrine.
The interview was published at Fars News, which is a pro-regime media outlet considered close to the IRGC. This is important because Iran is constantly focusing on training and conducting drills. In the last two weeks, for instance, the Islamic Republic has conducted two types of drills, one focusing on the IRGC navy, and another larger army exercise.
The recent interview reveals how Iran is following Russia’s military doctrine and also learning from Pakistan and how it is focusing on missiles and drones. Tehran is also warning its adversaries that it is practicing conducting raids that could destabilize the Gulf if Iran were confronted with a larger conflict.
It's important to understand that Iran’s military has several aspects. While it has traditional armed forces, such as a navy, air force and ground forces, it also has the IRGC forces. The IRGC acts as a paramilitary force, as elite forces guarding the regime, the force at the forefront of some of the missile and drone technology, and the force that conducts operations abroad in places like Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Therefore, the main reason it’s worth understanding the doctrine is to see how Iran understands its own military role.
The long interview is not exceptional – Iran’s pro-regime media is prone to having such interviews that appear to reveal a lot about its thinking and also include some introspection.
This makes Iran, as a regime, more interesting than many other authoritarian ones. It would be unlikely to have a similar long interview with a Russian military commander, a Chinese commander or a Turkish officer, where there was any introspection, beyond simplistic nationalist propaganda. Iran’s regime is a bit different.
Let’s take a look at what the commander said. First of all, the interviewer begins by noting the large extent of recent military drills, which were supposedly conducted over millions of square kilometers. This is a reference to the fact it included a large area of the coastline and also areas of the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean.
It is a bit of an exaggeration for Iran to pretend it can really project its power over all this area at the same time, but nevertheless, it is trying to use drones and long-range missiles to cover immense areas of the Indian Ocean and also coastal areas. Tehran has shown it can strike at ships in the Gulf of Oman using drones, for instance.
The commander says the recent training was important to show that Iran’s education and training of recruits is paying off, adding that it helps hone tactics and strategy. Sheikh then moves on to discuss the future of warfare in the region. He says wars are not “single force” but rather include combined arms and joint forces, and will involve all the “resources of the nation.”
He discusses the importance of air defense and combining various units into combined operations. This means that Iran wants to be able to use its relatively small navy alongside its ground forces, air force and apparently the IRGC as well.
This kind of combined arms approach is not unique to Iran. Israel’s recent Momentum five-year plan has also focused on streamlining how units work together. The US Marine Corps does the same thing. In fact, the whole notion of modern warfare is about how to make different units work better together.
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