(JNS) One of the principal surprises of the Iran war has been Iran’s willingness to target bystander nations in the Gulf to exert pressure on US and Israeli military policy.
On March 20, this strategy of nation-scale hostage-taking was expanded to the European continent. The launch of two ballistic missiles targeting the joint United States-United Kingdom naval support facility on Diego Garcia, a remote atoll situated in the Chagos Archipelago, served as a clear demonstration of the range of Iran’s military ambitions.
While the outcome of the strike yielded no infrastructural damage to the base, the reach of the launch has far-reaching consequences. The projectiles traversed an estimated 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles), dismantling Tehran’s long-standing claim of a self-imposed 2,000-km limit on its ballistic-missile range.
By targeting Diego Garcia, Iran signaled its capacity and willingness to target strategic rear bases. However, the most profound implication of the March 20 strike is strictly geographic. The raw mathematics of a 4,000-kilometer range dictates that if an isolated atoll in the central Indian Ocean is within the reach of Iranian rocket forces, the...
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