Iran’s New Missile Fleet: Part Deterrent, Part Sales Pitch

When Iran launched a barrage of airstrikes this week into Iraq, Syria and Pakistan, it was not just showing off the reach and sophistication of some of its newest missiles but also staking a claim: This is a new era in which Iran can flex its muscles at will and, as an added benefit, bolster its credentials as an important arms supplier.

In at least one of the attacks — a strike that Tehran claimed targeted the Islamic State terrorist group in Idlib, Syria — Iran appeared to make use of one of its longest-range and most advanced missiles, the Kheibar Shekan. Both the range and the apparent accuracy seized the attention of national security officials in Europe and Israel, as well as outside experts who track Iran’s technological advances.

The combination of its newest missiles and its fleet of drones, which Russia has been purchasing by the thousands for use in Ukraine, has helped Iran become the producer of some of the most sophisticated weaponry in the Middle East.

And Tehran’s willingness to intervene — as a supplier to its proxy forces in the region and to Moscow — may well complicate American calculations as the Pentagon considers the question looming over the widening Middle East conflict: Could it lead to a direct conflict with Iran?

American plans to counter Iran were long built on the assumption that Tehran’s ability to inflict pain beyond its borders had its limits.

Its missiles were of dubious accuracy, and its drone program was still new. Its most potent weapons against the United States and its Western allies were largely cyberweapons. Even then, while it had landed some blows — crippling, for example, the Sands Casino — the global threat posed by Iran took a back seat to China and Russia.