Iran’s Power Projection Capability

PURPOSE:

• To examine Iran’s capability to project power by reviewing Iran’s military arsenal, financing, training, and arming of proxy groups in the region.
• To expose how those capabilities may advance as a result of increased funding from sanctions relief.
• To seek answers to critical questions about how the U.S. should be prepared to defend national security interests in the Middle East and at home against Iran’s advancement in power projection as a result of sanctions relief.

BACKGROUND:

• Iran has been designated by the State Department as a “state sponsor of terrorism” since 1984.
• Iran maintains an advanced ballistic and cruise missile program that poses a realistic threat to U.S. vessels, forces, and allies in the Gulf region and beyond.
• The potential influx of funding as a result of sanctions relief could result in the advancement of Iran’s ballistic and cruise missile programs, posing an even more lethal threat to U.S. and allied warships and commercial maritime vessels in the Gulf, as well as increasing the threat to U.S. and allied ground forces and civilian targets in the region.