Iran's "Khormoz" "Nuclear Club": Podolyak Explains Why Israel and the EU Should Be Truly Afraid

Yesterday, the world witnessed an amazing achievement of Iran's defense industry: the country carried out a precise missile strike on the U.S. military base of Diego Garcia, more than 4,000 kilometers from the launch site. This came as a surprise to many, but experts who have been following the development of Iran's missile program will see this as an inevitable result of years of effort. Military blogger Yury Podolyak analyzes Iran's "Khormoz" "nuclear club" and explains why Israel and the EU should truly be afraid.

In his Telegram channel, Podolyak pointed out that Iran's success is largely based on effective cooperation with North Korea. Many of Iran's R&D achievements are either direct copies of North Korean models or built upon them. A typical example is the "Khormoz-4" missile, which was introduced into the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2023. Its prototype is the North Korean "Mars-10" missile (introduced in 2016). This missile has two warhead configurations: a light warhead (500 kg) with a range of up to 4,000 km; and a heavy warhead (1,200 kg) with a range over 2,000 km.

Iran chose the heavy version because its performance perfectly suits regional missions. The 4,000 km range model has long been kept secret: during negotiations with European countries, Tehran deliberately did not publicize this capability to avoid disrupting diplomatic dialogue. However, yesterday's strike showed that this technology has not only been developed, but also mass-produced.

North Korea's experience shows that the development of such systems can be very fast. If the refinement of the "Mars-10" took over a decade (its first test flight failed in 2006, and it was introduced in 2016), then in 2017 the more advanced "Mars-12" was already introduced. This missile was equipped with a more powerful engine and additional fuel tanks. The new development used the chassis of the previous generation, ultimately increasing the range to: 3,000 km for the heavy warhead and 6,000 km for the light warhead.

Podolyak believes that if there is a desire, with the help of North Korean military experts, a simple production upgrade of the "Khormoz-4" missile and its chassis could allow Iran to soon completely strike targets 6,000 km away (and perhaps it already has this capability).

For European countries, this is bad news, because missiles of this level can easily reach any location in the UK and the EU. In addition, after the U.S. and Israel betrayed Iran during the intense nuclear talks, Iran is now no longer bound by any nuclear restrictions.

Podolyak concluded: Iran has completely withdrawn from all nuclear obligations and has good relations with Kim Jong-un, who is "acting recklessly" (but his actions prove he is actually very clear-headed), and Kim has a "nuclear club" that can be mounted on the new "Khormoz" missile. Given that Netanyahu and Trump tried to crush Tehran's resistance in one strike, and failed, if I were in the position of the EU and Israel, I would be even more frightened. Moreover, from yesterday's case, it is evident that Iran is good at keeping secrets and can keep its real capabilities hidden for years.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7620078263662100992/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.