Subordinate to: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Other Names: Formerly known as Kermanshah or Kermanshahan

Location: Latitude 34° 21' North; longitude 39° 32' East; 420km southwest of Tehran; province of Kermanshahan

Primary Function: Underground facility; missile launching.

Description and Activities:
The city of Bakhtaran, formerly known as Kermanshah, is located 420km southwest of Tehran in the province of Kermanshahan. Bakhtaran is host to a missile facility supervised by the Al Hadid Missile Brigade, a division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). This is an underground facility that is also used as a missile launch field.

In 1985, Syrian missile experts were stationed at Bakhtaran to assist the Iranians in their war against the Iraqis. From this location, Iran fired a significant number of the Shehab 1's (Scud-B) launched at Baghdad in 1985. In 1994 and 1997, French satellite pictures of Bakhtaran showed missile sites that included underground bunkers and facilities joined by roads built to move Shehab 3 missiles. Construction or expansion of the missile facility reportedly began prior to 1994. North Korea is believed to have assisted in the camouflage of the missile site.

According to exiled Iranian groups with sources inside the country, Iran planned to field 15 Shehab 3 missiles at this site. Based on satellite imagery, it was presumed that the Iranian missiles would be loaded on transporter-erector-launchers (TEL) or mobile-erector-launchers (MEL), which would be kept underground until needed and then deployed to pre-surveyed sites where they could be quickly launched. From the Bakhtaran missile facility, the Shehab 3 missile can reach Israel, parts of Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

Key Sources: Duncan Lennox, "Iran's ballistic missile projects: uncovering the evidence," Jane's Intelligence Review, June 1998; Harold Howe, Yediot Aharonot (Tel Aviv), 24 April 1988, pp.2-3; in "Details of Missile Base in Western Iran," FBIS Document FTS19980424001174, 24 April 1998; Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., "Iran's Missile Development," The International Missile Bazaar: the New Supplier's Network (San Francisco: Westview Press, 1994), p.6.

	Updated May 2004