More planes, more missiles, more warships: Iran increases its military budget by a third

The supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced the general policies of the Sixth Development Plan to the Iranian president on June 30. All the major policies of the country are managed according to these development plans, which are published every five years. In the Sixth Plan, the section about strengthening Iran’s defense and security stands out as noteworthy.

In this section, Khamenei ordered the administration and the armed forces to:

• Allocate at least 5% of the public budget to defense, in order to increase the defense abilities of the country within the regional balance of power to ensure Iran's national interests and national security.
• Upgrade the defense capabilities of the country by expanding its missile technology, expanding weapons production capacity and producing defense equipment against all forms of external threats.

In April, Ayatollah Khamenei met with military personnel and gave them a new order: “All organizations, including the Ministry of Defense, the military and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC], should increase their military and defense preparedness and increase their combative and mental capabilities on a daily basis. This should be taken as an official order.”

The order clearly shows that Iran is determined to expand the quality and the quantity of its armed forces. According to the latest report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Iran has about 500,000 active members in the armed forces and a budget of over $14 billion. Under the Sixth Development Plan, the administration is required to allocate 5% of the country’s entire budget to defense purposes. In this year’s budget, this means that at least $17 billion will go to the armed forces. However, considering the wide reach of the Iranian armed forces within the Middle East, this amount appears quite negligible.