US outguns Iran, but faces painful realities in event of war

Iran’s military has more than 700,000 troops, not counting the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that downed a US drone on Thursday

A review of Iran’s weapons shows that many are ‘obsolete’, but its missiles, air defences and use of proxy forces can ‘scarcely be ignored’

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Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stands next to a missile system in this handout picture from 2014. Photo: EPA

Published: 6:41pm, 22 Jun 2019Updated: 6:41pm, 22 Jun 2019

Rising tensions that, according to President Donald Trump, left the United States just short of open conflict with Iran this week highlight a grim reality that the Pentagon has coped with for years: While the US military outguns Iran, Tehran could still make even a limited war painful.

Iran’s military has more than 700,000 troops, including a conventional army of about 350,000 soldiers, according to a Congressional Research Service report published last month. That’s not counting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a specialised force comprising another 125,000 troops in its army and 20,000 personnel in its navy, the CRS report said.

US President Donald Trump reportedly halted a retaliatory strike against Iran on Thursday. Photo: AFP

It’s the IRGC that has created friction between the United States and Iran. The force, designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the Trump administration in April, patrols the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, oversees Iran’s ballistic missile programmes and claimed responsibility for launching the missile that downed a US RQ-4 surveillance drone over the Gulf of Oman early on Thursday, prompting a planned retaliatory strike before Trump halted it late in the day.

A review of Iran’s weapons shows that many of them are “obsolete, obsolescent, or of relatively low quality,” according to a report last year by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. But the report adds that Tehran’s ballistic and cruise missiles, air defences and use of proxy forces can “scarcely be ignored”.

A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that ships accompanying the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln were poised to strike if called upon. They included the USS Bainbridge, a destroyer, and the USS Leyte Gulf, a guided missile cruiser, both of which can carry Tomahawk missiles, the official said.