Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps inaugurated a new underground facility designated for missile storage, Iranian state TV reported Monday.
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The report quotes IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami as saying that cruise and ballistic missiles would make Iran's navy even more powerful. The TV report showed footage of dozens of missiles in an enclosed space resembling an underground corridor. It did not say where the facility as located nor how many missiles were stored there.
Since 2011, Iran has boasted maintaining underground facilities across the country as well as along its southern coast near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Iran claims to have missiles that can travel 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), placing much of the Middle East, including Israel, within range.
The US and its Western allies see Iran's missile program as a threat, along with the country's nuclear program – particularly after Tehran gradually breached its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers following the Trump administration's withdrawal from the deal in 2018.
Last July, the Revolutionary Guards launched underground ballistic missiles as part of an exercise involving a mock-up American aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz, highlighting its network of subterranean missile sites.
Since Iran's bloody 1980s war with Iraq, which saw both nations fire missiles on cities, Iran has developed its ballistic missile program as a deterrent, especially as a UN arms embargo prevents it from buying high-tech weapons systems. The underground tunnels help protect those weapons, including liquid-fueled missiles that can only be fueled for short periods of time.
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