The launch, however unsuccessful, suggests that Iran has not been transparent about its missile programme.
Tehran has previously stated it had unilaterally limited the range of its missiles to 2,000km. But Israel now claims that Iranian missiles have double that range – up to 4,000km. That would put not just Diego Garcia in its sights, but also much of mainland Europe.
Despite its own claims, Iran has long been known to have short-range ballistic missiles – with a maximum range of 3,000km. It is what they have been firing frequently at Israel and neighbouring Gulf nations over the past three weeks.
Before the war, Iran was believed to have had stockpiles of more than 2,000 short-range ballistic missiles. Despite the US and Israel targeting these munitions, they are still being launched.
Less clear is Iran’s intermediate-range ballistic missile programme – with a range of between 3,000km to 5,500km.
Sidharth Kaushal, a senior fellow at London-based think tank the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), says that it was “long understood the Iranians had an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile programme before this war started”.
He explained that assumption on the basis of two possible reasons. First, longer-range missiles would be required if Iran wanted to develop a nuclear weapon – which it has persistently denied, despite Western accusations. The second is that Iran has needed to develop longer-range rockets for its own space programme.
