Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Main article: Iranian Armed Forces

The Armed Forces (Armed Forces) of the Islamic Republic Iran include the regular army and the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to the report of the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (RUMO), USA published in November 2019, as of August of the same year, 190 thousand people were in the IRGC. The number of the regular army is 420 thousand people. In wartime, the total number of armed forces allows an increase of another 1 million people.

History

2024: Killing of two generals and five officers over Israeli strike on Iranian consulate building in Syria

An Israeli airstrike on an embassy compound Iran Syria in April 1, 2024, killed several people, including a senior Iranian general with ties to the IRGC, Iranian and Syrian state officials report MEDIA, , adding to tensions between longtime adversaries.

Tehran intends to give a decisive response to Israel to a missile attack on the country's consulate building, said Iranian Ambassador to Syria Hossein Akbari. He clarified that the building was attacked by F-35 fighters, and six missiles were fired during the attack.

The IRGC confirmed the deaths of two generals and five officers due to the Israeli strike.

Iranian media confirmed that one of the dead was Al-Quds Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, responsible for IRGC operations in Syria and Lebanon.

Al-Quds Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi

Israeli media present Zahedi as a key IRGC general who led all attacks on Israel through Iranian-controlled formations. It was he who headed the "Department 2000," which was engaged in operations in the Levant.

At the same time, Mohammad Reza Zahedi became the highest-ranking IRGC general killed by Israeli troops. In fact, this is the most tangible loss for Iran after the death of Commander-in-Chief Qasem Soleimani as a result of an American drone attack in January 2020.

2023: Cruise missile tests with a range of up to 1,650km by IRGC aerospace forces

In February 2023, the commander of the aerospace forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, on federal Iranian television, presented the latest cruise missile (KR) with a range of up to 1650 km - Pawe.

The personnel show the moment of launch of the CG from the ground launcher using the starting solid fuel engine with subsequent activation of the jet engine. "Pawe" itself went along a given route to the final goal at an altitude of 50 meters and hit the object.

Hajizadeh added that the development of the Iranian defense industry has reached a different level with the creation of long-range hypersonic and cruise missiles, and the main task of the government is "the destruction of Iran's opponents in the person of Israel and the United States."

The Iranian military-industrial complex has proven a high degree of development, despite many years of economic and sanctions pressure from Western countries. The Iranians have demonstrated the ability to adapt to external conditions using all available methods.

In the case of the Pawe, it is curious how the Iranians once again adapted a mobile installation to launch this type of missile - this essentially became standard for the Iranian armed forces to solve the existing problem with air carriers. However, earlier in Iran it was not possible to achieve such a range of the KR of the "ground - ground" type, the Rybar channel noted.

There has been no confirmation of hypersonic weapons yet, except for the words of the IRGC high command in November 2022, so at the moment these statements are questionable.

And the development of cruise missiles acquired a modern form by 2015, when the Sumar ground-based KR was presented. The first actual use occurred during the conflict in Yemen, where, under the guise of their own development, the Houthis from the Ansar Allah movement tried to hit the nuclear power plant in the UAE.

The Iranians actively ran through almost all of their developments with the help of the Houthis, transporting parts and components by smuggling into Yemen. The appearance of the KR of the Quds family, now used by the Houthis, which became the prototype of the Pave, is a full-fledged copy of the Iranian KR Sumar.

The Iranian military-industrial complex is increasingly developing a strategic range missile program, expanding the range of weapons on the balance sheet of the Army and the IRGC. Given the range of the new Pawe missile at 1650 km, the Iranians are able to strike at important targets of the United States and, in particular, Israel, from anywhere in Iran.

Iran is equipping its armed forces with more and more new types of weapons, Khordad-15 air defense systems are being transferred to Syria to protect against air strikes by the Israeli Air Force, which cannot but alarm Iran's opponents.