DIA reports IRGC's unconventional forces number more than a million

Geostrategy Direct ^ | Geostrategy Direct

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The U.S. intelligence community has tracked the huge growth of IRGC's military over the last decade. Officials said IRGC has formed fully-fledged armies, navies and air force, organized to conduct both conventional and insurgency operations.

"Iran's objective is to overwhelm enemy air defenses with mobile CDCMs [coastal defense cruise missiles], combined with multiple rocket launchers, coastal artillery, and ballistic missiles," an assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency said.

The DIA assessment, titled "Iran's Military Power," outlined the roles of Iran's conventional military and IRGC. The assessment, released to the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 15, asserted that the conventional military was responsible for the borders of Iraq and Turkey while IRGC, with more than one million fighters, was responsible for site protection, naval patrols in the Gulf and asymmetrical warfare against potential adversaries. "Iran's unconventional forces [IRGC], to include its paramilitary forces trained according to its asymmetric warfare doctrine, would present a formidable force on Iranian territory," the DIA report said. "These forces would include commando and special forces units, smaller specially trained teams embedded within the conventional force units, selected Basij forces, and combat patrols of the law enforcement forces. Numbers of personnel could exceed one million."

DIA said IRGC's army has been comprised of armored, infantry, and commando divisions, as well as several independent armor, infantry, airborne, and commando brigades, and artillery groups. The army was organized into the Provincial Corps, with armor and infantry brigades and artillery groups. The report said each brigade has been allocated Basij battalions which support brigade combat operations.

The IRGC navy, with four districts, consists of 18,000 personnel. DIA said this included submarine, missile boat, patrol boat, and auxiliary units, naval aviation units and naval riflemen and marine commando units.

[Army Air Corps]

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