Iran

RELIABILITY 4 (POOR)

GDP ~$350-billion 2009

BUDGET ~$6-billion 2009

PERSONNEL 200,000; plus 50,000 effective reserves.

IRGC 125-130,000 standing plus 300,000 reserve.

Population: ~67-million 2009

For a larger scale map with more detail, click here

Iran uses a 3-tier defense:

Regular army (volunteers/conscripts)

Revolutionary Guard (Pasdaran) (volunteers/conscripts)

Basij Militia (boys, older men, women)

The Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps is separate from the Iran Army and is considered more ideologically reliable. The difficulty in identifying the IRGC orbat is that it tells us nothing about the state of readiness. Many, if not most, IRGC formations fill up in emergency with militias that are not trained to Army standards.

Unusually, the Revolutionary Guard is not subordinate to the Regular army but parallel. It serves as the first line military in many cases. It also appears to control Iran’s tactical and strategic rocket forces.

In 2007-08 the Basij was claimed as 12-million, and was put back under the command of the Revolutionary Guard. In wartime, the Guard will support the Basij who will take the first brunt of the adversary’s attack.

Back to Country List

Forward to Iran Page 2