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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian commander: defense budget not sufficient
2013-07-06
Iran's defense budget is not sufficient given the current foreign threats to the country, Deputy Commander of the Iranian Armed Forces, Coordination Division Brigadier General Mohammad Hossein Dadras said on Friday.
No doubt he's telling the Iranian MPs that Americans are ten feet tall...
"Among 16 countries in the region, Iran ranks 15 in terms of its defense budget, but the country's military capabilities are acceptable, the Mehr News Agency quoted Dadras as saying.

He went on to note that Iran is currently self-sufficient in producing military hardware.
The Fars News Agency reported on May 12 that the Iranian parliament (Majlis) approved the allocation of $5 billion to the national defense budget. The allocated budget is close to last year's defense budget.

Iran's defense budget was increased 127 percent to around $5 billion during the last solar year, which started on March 19, 2012.
Posted by:Steve White

#3  I'd rather see their unconventional warfare potential deteriorate.
Posted by: Pappy   2013-07-06 10:12  

#2  I'm sure Obama, et. el., will offer them some aid.
Posted by: Skidmark   2013-07-06 00:55  

#1  http://csis.org/files/publication/100812_IranGulfThreatBrief-ConvBal.pdf
shows that Iranian conventional forces remain weak, and are aging more quickly than Iran can as yet modernize them in spite of major efforts to create a military-industrial base. It also shows that the military expenditures and arms imports of the Southern Gulf states are vastly larger than those of Iran, and they have much larger forces of modern military equipment. Given the fact that the US brings a far more decisive lead in air, naval, and missile warfare to the table; Iran is anything but the “hegemon of the Gulf.”

http://csis.org/files/publication/100812_IranGulfThreatBrief-Asymm.pdf. It shows that Iran has far greater capability for asymmetric (or irregular) warfare than conventional warfare and has developed a wide mix of land, air, and naval capabilities that can threaten its neighbors, challenge the US, and affect other parts of the Middle East and Asia. These capabilities include IranÂ’s ability to threaten and intimate its Gulf neighbors, and threaten Gulf exports. They also include the capability to use state and non-state actors as proxies or in threatening and manipulating a range of neighboring states, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Israel. These forces are the key military elements of Iranian strategic competition and are steadily increasing in size and capability.

http://csis.org/files/publication/100813_IranGulfThreatBriefMissile-WMD.pdf. It shows that Iran continues to develop the capability to produce nuclear weapons, has chemical weapons, and may have a biological weapons program. It also shows that Iran has made the development and deployment of long-range missile forces a key priority. At present, these missiles may lack the accuracy and lethality to pose more than a terror threat, but they already give Iran some capability to pressure and intimidate its neighbors and other states in the region, deter attacks on Iran, and deter reprisals for its use of asymmetric forces. There is a significant prospect that Iran will be able to equip some missiles with nuclear warheads in the next three to six years – a development which would be a far more powerful deterrent and way of using military force to support its efforts at strategic competition.
Posted by: Thaing Dingles   2013-07-06 00:51  

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