Welcome to Rewind & Reconnoiter. Each week, we’ll ask one of our authors to look back at an article they’ve written for War on the Rocks in light of a current news event. Did their argument hold up? Read more below to find out.***In 2022, Jim Lamson wrote “New Missiles, New Risks: The Escalatory Implications of Iran’s Precision-Strike Weapons” for War on the Rocks, in which he argued that, “Washington hasn’t fully reckoned with the way in which [precision-strike] capability has increased Iran’s strategic self-confidence and heightened the risk of rapid escalation in a crisis.” In light of recent tensions between Iran and the United States in the Middle East, we asked him to reflect on his article.Read more below.Image: Islamic Republic News AgencyIn your piece, you write that “Iran has expanded the types and deployments of precision-strike weapons across all of its military services.” How has this developed further in the years since?Since Jan. 2022, Iran’s armed forces — both the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Artesh — have continued to increase their reliance on and expand their deployments of precision-strike weapons, including ballistic missiles, guided artillery rockets, land attack and antiship cruise missiles, armed and suicide unmanned aerial vehicles, and surface-to-air missiles. This expansion has involved all services of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Artesh across their aerospace, naval, and ground forces. Since my piece was published in Jan. 2022, Iran has also unveiled new precision-strike weapons, including several types of ballistic missiles, land attack and antiship cruise missiles, armed and suicide unmanned aerial vehicles, and surface-to-air missiles. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Artesh have also continued to accept delivery of new weapons and to employ them in their military exercises across aerospace, naval, and ground domains, and the corps has used them in several operations against Iran’s state and nonstate adversaries. Simply put, conventionally
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Welcome to Rewind & Reconnoiter. Each week, we’ll ask one of our authors to look back at an article they’ve written for War on the Rocks in light of a current news event. Did their argument hold up? Read more below to find out.***In 2022, Jim Lamson wrote “New Missiles, New Risks: The Escalatory Implications of Iran’s Precision-Strike Weapons” for War on the Rocks, in which he argued that, “Washington hasn’t fully reckoned with the way in which [precision-strike] capability has increased Iran’s strategic self-confidence and heightened the risk of rapid escalation in a crisis.” In light of recent tensions between Iran and the United States in the