2016 Iran Military Power Report sent to Capitol Hill

The Defense Department last week transmitted the annual report on the Military Power of Iran in 2016 to lawmakers. The unclassified executive summary -- a scant single page -- of the statutorily required report largely restates points the director of national intelligence outlined in May 11, 2017 testimony on worldwide threats before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Key points, according to the report drafted by the Defense Intelligence Agency and forwarded by the Pentagon’s policy shop to Congress, are that during 2016 Iran took steps “to improve its military capabilities to secure itself from both internal and external threats, and emerge as a regional dominant power.”

The report notes significant leadership changes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei directed in June 2016, including appointing “new leaders to highest positions of the armed forces for the first time since 1989.” Those changes included replacing Iran's long-serving top officer Maj. Gen. Hasan Firuzabadi with Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, a “younger, more operationally experienced and strategically minded officer,” according to the executive summary.

Iran, according to the summary, also took ownership in 2016 of Russian-made SA-20c surface-to-air missile systems, giving Tehran its “most advanced, long-range air defense asset.”

The summary document does not make explicit reference to Iran's goal of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile, as it has in prior reports, but notes Iran “maintains a substantial inventory of missiles” capable of reaching targets in the region -- including U.S. military posts and Israel -- “and the regime continues to develop more sophisticated missiles.”