Tehran has revealed a large and secretive underground facility, designed to safely store its missile arsenal and, apparently, to launch the projectiles as well, should the need arise.
The video features a missile storage bunker at an [obviously] undisclosed location, as well as pre-launch maintenance and blast-off of a Qiam-1 missile. The projectile has been in service since 2010 and is said to have an operational range of some 750 km.
The video was quietly released last week, yet caught the attention of the online crowd only on Friday.
The bunker, full of missiles and their warheads, looks quite old-school – it’s a long, vast tunnel, presumably bored under a mountain. The entrance to the storage area is protected by a heavy blast door, that is decorated in quite some style – there are portraits of Iranian leaders on the sides, an Israeli flag to drive over and the “Death to Israel” slogan right before the entrance.
The video then shows servicemen taking a missile’s frame and a warhead from stock and carefully assembling them into a combat-ready projectile, then mounting it on a launch vehicle. The last few seconds of the video briefly show the missile launch, though it’s quite hard to tell if this section actually features the same location.
Back in February, Iran released rare footage of its missile factory, located within a whole “underground city.” It was not immediately clear whether this new video was shot at the same location or somewhere else.
Iran’s missile program has been repeatedly criticized in the West, which has urged the country to stop testing and expanding its arsenal. Tehran, however, has maintained that the missiles are needed solely for defensive purposes and the whole program cannot become the subject of any negotiations.
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