Iran
Shiraz Missile Plant
About
In the late 1970s, Iran hired the U.S. companies Westinghouse and Hughes Aircraft to build a missile assembly and repair plant in Shiraz in cooperation with Iran Electronics Industry, but the project was halted after the 1979 revolution. 1 Since then, the plant has been reported as one of several alleged missile production sites in Iran. The Shiraz plant is allegedly producing fuel and components for Shahab-1/Scud-B missiles and conducting research and development. 2
In June 2025, this facility was damaged by Israeli airstrikes as part of the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel. These attacked were targeted at Iranian nuclear and missile infrastructure. While satellite imagery analysis confirms that this facility has been damaged, its exact operability status is unknown.3
Glossary
- Scud
- Scud is the designation for a series of short-range ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and transferred to many other countries. Most theater ballistic missiles developed and deployed in countries of proliferation concern, for example Iran and North Korea, are based on the Scud design.
Sources
- John P. Miglietta, American Alliance Policy in the Middle East 1945 - 1992: Iran, Israel and Saudi-Arabia, (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2002), p. 95; Will Dossel, “Ballistic Missile Defense,” in Securing Freedom in the Global Commons, ed. Scott Jasper (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010), pp. 115-130.
- Yonah Alexander and Milton M. Hoenig, The New Iranian Leadership (London: Praeger Security International, 2008), p. 179; Andrei Frolov, “Iran’s Delivery Systems Capabilities,” Security Index No. 2 (82), Vol. 13, Summer/Fall 2007, PIR Center, p. 31.
- According to satellite analysis by Sam Lair at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, June 2025.
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