- State affiliation · Iran
- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
State affiliation: Iran.
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
The service that holds Iran's ballistic missile and drone programmes — the organisation behind the retaliation of both wars, and the one whose entire senior leadership was killed in a single strike in June 2025.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. 2 subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 3 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- Iran, with reach across the Gulf and the wider region
- Notable history
- Iran's answer to an air force it cannot modernise has been a missile force it can, and that force sits in the Revolutionary Guard rather than in the Artesh. The Aerospace Force holds the surface-to-surface missile programme and the long-range drone programme, and it is the institution that carried out the retaliation phases of both the June 2025 war and the war that began in February 2026. It is also the most successfully targeted organisation in the Iranian military: Israel's opening strike in June 2025 killed its commander together with the commanders of its drone, surface-to-surface missile and air-defence wings, in a single attack on a bunker meeting.
- Strengths
- The capability that lets Iran reach every Gulf state and impose costs on opponents it cannot engage in the air. Its continued operations after losing its whole senior command in 2025, and again after the losses of early 2026, indicate that firing authority does not depend on the officers at the top.
- Limitations
- Its output is measurable and its effect is not: Iranian launches after February 2026 exceeded six thousand seven hundred, a figure that counts what left the ground and says nothing about what arrived. Its production base has been struck repeatedly and US officials claim much of Iran's missile manufacturing capacity was destroyed — a claim carried here as made, not established. This record holds no inventory, no launch sites, no basing, no ranges, no targeting and no readiness; the module publishes what the organisation is for, not what it has or where.
Subordinate formations
Rows are layout only — position and order carry no hierarchy, importance, sequence or strength. Every record shown is an immediate subordinate of the selected organisation.
Related organisations
- Artesh Air Defence Force Cooperated with · as of 2026-09 · moderate confidence
Air defence is the documented exception to Iran's institutional separation: the Khatam al-Anbiya air-defence headquarters is described as coordinating the air-defence assets of both the Artesh and the Revolutionary Guard, and analysts note that outside this function there has been very little interoperability between the two forces. Whether the headquarters is best understood as an Artesh service command or as a joint body above both is described differently by different sources, and this module does not resolve it.
- Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defence Headquarters Institutionally linked to · as of 2026-10 · low confidence
The Guard's air-defence units are described as coordinated through this headquarters. On 8 March 2026 the Central Headquarters' spokesman stated that air-defence systems of the Artesh ground forces, the Artesh Air Defence Force and the Guard engaged drones "under the command" of this headquarters — the only wartime statement found that places units of both forces under one command. It is Iran's own account of its operations and is recorded as such; the edge stays graded low, because a statement of command is not a published order of subordination.
Campaigns
Campaigns naming this organisation as a participant. The campaign record owns the relationship and grades it; this list is computed.
- The 2026 interstate war Opposing force · Since 28 February 2026 · high confidence · as of 2026-09
The service holding the missile and drone programmes that carried the retaliation; the launch aggregate on this campaign is its output.
- The twelve-day war, June 2025 Opposing force · 13 – 24 June 2025 · moderate confidence · as of 2025-06
Named at service level because the evidence names it: the opening Israeli strike killed the Aerospace Force's commander together with the commanders of its drone, surface-to-surface missile and air-defence wings, reportedly as they met to plan Iran's response. The 2026 campaign carries no equivalent service-level participant, because no source this module has read names one.
Key events
The twelve-day war between Israel, the United States and Iran
Israel begins strikes on Iran on 13 June 2025; the United States strikes three nuclear facilities on 22 June; a ceasefire is announced on 24 June.
Quick actions
System access
Where this record connects into the rest of Vigil. Each row is here because this organisation actually reaches it.
Assessed as of — 2026-09 Last reviewed — 2026-09-09
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