{"id":25106,"date":"2019-11-19T18:17:59","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T18:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/11\/19\/irans-military-expeditionary-capabilities-are-limited-but-its-heeding-valuable-lessons-learned\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:35:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:35:05","slug":"irans-military-expeditionary-capabilities-are-limited-but-its-heeding-valuable-lessons-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/11\/19\/irans-military-expeditionary-capabilities-are-limited-but-its-heeding-valuable-lessons-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s military expeditionary capabilities are \u2018limited\u2019 but it\u2019s heeding valuable lessons learned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2019\/11\/03\/supreme-leader-iran-has-outflanked-us-since-1979-revolution\/\" target=_blank>Iran <\/a>has shown its ability to deploy forces and air assets beyond its borders in support of allies across the Middle East in the wake of civil wars that have destabilized the region, according to a defense intelligence report on Iran\u2019s military capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2019\/11\/05\/iran-threatens-us-forces-and-allies-who-host-american-troops\/\" target=_blank>Iran<\/a> Military Power\u201d was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency and released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dia.mil\/Military-Power-Publications\/\" target=_blank>report<\/a> described Iran\u2019s ability to flex its forces beyond its borders as \u201climited\u201d but Iran is heeding lessons learned from conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen where its forces are combating ISIS militants and propping up proxy forces in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iran has also conducted \u201climited out-of-area naval operations as far as China, South Africa, and the Mediterranean Sea,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/2019\/06\/04\/what-war-with-iran-could-look-like\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_19098471996944.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">What war with Iran could look like<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Military Times interviewed more than a dozen military experts, including current and former U.S. military officials, about how a conflict might begin and how it could play out. This is what they said could happen:<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iran is also seeking to increase its support of UN international peacekeeping operations as a means to build legitimacy and potentially to \u201cdevelop expeditionary-like capabilities through operations other than war,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iran\u2019s ability to rapidly move expeditionary forces and conduct combined operations across the large swath of the Middle East threatens U.S. forces in the region and bolsters Iran\u2019s desire to showcase itself as the regional dominant power while stymieing American interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt has shown itself capable of sending small groups of conventional forces \u2014 including ground forces, military airlift, and UAV operators \u2014 into permissive allied countries to support larger operations,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIran\u2019s military has also revised professional military education to emphasize lessons learned from operations in Syria and Iraq, where it also has gained its first experience conducting combined operations with allied military forces,\u201d the report detailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Much of Iran\u2019s expeditionary capabilities developed as Iran reacted to chaotic events and civil wars raging across the region following America\u2019s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSince the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Iran has become increasingly involved in regional conflicts, with varying levels of military intervention in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen,\u201d the report detailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iran began sending military advisers to Iraq in 2014 to help combat ISIS and to keep Baghdad from fragmenting, according to the DIA report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Yemen, Iran has provided sophisticated weapons systems to Houthi rebels that did not exist in the Shia rebel group\u2019s arsenal prior to the collapse of the Yemen government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iranian missiles and explosive boat technology have found their way into the hands of the Yemen-based Houthis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Houthi\u2019s claimed responsibility for the mid-September attack on two Saudi Arabian oil fields. The U.S. has fingered Iran as culpable for the Saudi attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/25\/drone-and-missile-attacks-against-saudi-arabia-underscore-need-for-more-robust-air-defenses\/\" target=_blank>U.S. State Department<\/a> brief obtained by Military Times highlighted that a mix of drones and land attack cruise missiles were used in the strike that shuttered nearly 6 percent of the gloabal oil supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The brief didn\u2019t detail specifically what type of cruise missile or drones impacted the Saudi oil facilities, but it included two photos of the Iranian land-attack cruise missile, known as the Soumar, and the Quds-1 missile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIran also uses the IRGC-QF [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force] to provide varying levels of support to Shia groups in Bahrain, some Palestinian militant groups, and the Taliban in Afghanistan,\u201d the report detailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Quds forces is an Iranian paramilitary organization under the command of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The groups is tasked with exporting Iran\u2019s 1979 revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DIA report follows an explosive story from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2019\/11\/18\/world\/middleeast\/iran-iraq-spy-cables.html\" target=_blank>New York Times<\/a> that reported leaked Iranian intelligence cables spotlighting the level of Iranian interference in intrusion into Iraq\u2019s government and Tehran\u2019s control over America\u2019s partner in the Middle East. The Intercept also obtained the leaked cables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report also noted that Iran maintains regular rotations of deployed navy groups to the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden and \u201csometimes\u201d the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the report also detailed that the Iranian naval deployments are often symbolic to showcase force projection and that Iranian ships are often plagued with maintenance issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iran\u2019s ability to rapidly move expeditionary forces and conduct combined operations across the large swath of the Middle East threatens U.S. forces in the region and bolsters Iran\u2019s desire to showcase itself as the regional dominant power while stymieing American interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,23,89,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3399],"class_list":["post-25106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"BRFII4XJ2FCEVDDYPCYYYNU4V4","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2019\/11\/19\/irans-military-expeditionary-capabilities-are-limited-but-its-heeding-valuable-lessons-learned\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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