Iran is unlikely to develop a missile capable of reaching the East Coast of the United States for more than a decade, according to a report issued today by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
The IISS projection contrasts with a Pentagon report issued in April that said that with "sufficient foreign assistance," Iran could build and test a missile capable of reaching the U.S. East Coast by 2015.
The IISS study found that Iran has been "making robust strides in developing ballistic missiles" with "the aim of giving Iran the capability to deliver nuclear warheads well beyond its borders," a charge that Tehran vigorously denies. But before it moves on to building intercontinental ballistic missiles - those with ranges well beyond 3,417 miles - Iran will first want to perfect its intermediate-range rockets, or those capable of traveling 2,187 miles to 3,437 miles, the IISS report said.
"Logic and the history of Iran's evolutionary missile and space-launcher development efforts suggest that Tehran would develop and field an intermediate-range missile before embarking on a program to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the American East Coast, 9,000 km away," it said. "It is thus reasonable to conclude that a notional Iranian ICBM . . . is more than a decade away from development."
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