Satellite Imagery Shows Iran is Boosting Ballistic Missile Production

Satellite Imagery Shows Iran is Boosting Ballistic Missile Production

Karen Faulkner

Recent satellite images show that major expansions are underway at two key missile facilities in Iran, suggesting Tehran is working to boost its conventional ballistic missile production, Reuters and Algemeiner report.

The conclusion that Tehran is boosting missile production by expanding its Modarres and Khojir facilities is in line with an October 2022 deal in which Iran agreed to provide Russia with missiles to use against Ukraine, Reuters notes.

Iran also supplies the Shia Islamist Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Hezbollah Islamist terror in Lebanon with missiles used to attack Israel.

“Images taken by commercial satellite firm Planet Labs of the Modarres military base in March and the Khojir missile production complex in April show more than 30 new buildings at the two sites, both of which are located near Tehran,” Reuters said in its report. 

“The images, reviewed by Reuters, show many of the structures are surrounded by large dirt berms.” 

Jeffrey Lewis, an American researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, told Reuters after reviewing the images that such dirt berms are associated with missile production. Lewis noted that the two Iranian sites appear to be under construction and that it is not clear what type of missiles are being produced.

Nevertheless, Lewis added: “We know that Russia is on the hunt for low-cost missile capabilities, and it has gone to Iran and North Korea.”