NatSec Brief - March 2021 - JINSA’s Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy - Iran-Backed Missile

As Tehran relies more and more on these tools and tactics to pressure its neighbors, including American forces, Washington and its partners must proactively deter and degrade Iran’s use and spread of these weapons. [...] • The Houthis have been firing missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia for years, but Sunday’s events indicate recent advances in the pace, sophistication and distance of such strikes, with roughly 20 separate drone and/or missile attacks against Saudi infrastructure so far in 2021: º On March 4, missiles and drones targeted a separate Saudi oil installation at Jeddah near the Red Sea, and another air. [...] • Iran’s operational concept features three basic interlocking components: º Better weaponry and tactics: Iran’s missile and drone programs have existed for decades, but in recent years it has devoted major effort, and made clear strides, in improving its short- and medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles (land-attack and anti-ship variants) and its unmanned armed aerial and naval surface vehic. [...] º From there, the tempo and operational sophistication of these attacks ticked upward, marked by two Iranian missile and drone swarm attacks on Iraq and Syria in fall 2018. [...] • By September 2019, Iran’s advances were on remarkable display in its unclaimed attack on major Saudi oil processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais, two of the biggest in the world: º In just 17 minutes, 25 drones and cruise missiles slammed into individual buildings at the facilities, taking offline fully half of Saudi oil output – and five percent of global oil production – and causing the la.