Iran Reveals What Percentage of Its Military Equipment is Homegrown

Facing decades of sanctions pressure from its pre-1979 go-to arms suppliers, the Islamic Republic has established a penchant for making its most important military equipment domestically whenever possible. Over the past 40+ years, the country’s defense industry has created world-class missiles, air defense systems and drones, mostly from scratch.

Iran produces as much as nine-tenths of its military equipment domestically, a senior defense official has revealed.

Speaking to Lebanese media, Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics spokesman Brig. Gen. Reza Talaei-Nik indicated that since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran has “transformed from an importer of weapons into a country that manufactures about 90 percent of its military needs.”

Characterizing the Islamic Republic as among the top ten nations in the world in terms of defense technology, Talaei-Nik nevertheless stressed that the country uses its equipment only for defense, and “has not and will never be the initiator of any war.” Iran will also “spare no effort in decisively defending its independence and security,” he said.

True to the spokesman’s words, Iran has not invaded another country since 1795, when Persian troops captured and sacked Tbilisi, Georgia before being beaten back and ceding most of its Caucasus territories to Russia after the Russo-Persian War of 1804. The country has participated in several defensive wars since 1979, including the brutal Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, and several foreign-backed insurgencies. Iran also sent advisors from its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force to assist Lebanese militias during the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli War, and to help Syrian forces battling an assortment of foreign-backed Jihadists from 2012 onward.

Recognized as one of the top scientific powers in the world, modern Iran has built a large and complex military-industrial complex, showcasing an array of advanced reconnaissance and strike drones, as well as advanced military satellites, air defense systems, ramjet-powered cruise missile technology, and even a hypersonic missile. Iran has not hesitated to use its weapons to defend its interests, even against the United States, shooting down a US spy drone over Iranian airspace in the Strait of Hormuz in 2019, and launching about a dozen ballistic missiles at a pair of US military bases in neighboring Iraq after the January 2020 US assassination of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in January 2020.