The Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards accused Iran’s “enemies” of trying to destroy the country’s missile program; while claiming those attempts were successfully obstructed. According to the Commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Division, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, those unspecified-enemies “tried as best as they could to sabotage a small part which the Islamic Republic imports so that its missiles would not reach their target and explode mid-air.”
While the senior IRGC official claimed that all of the efforts were thwarted, a report that was published by the New York Times earlier this month revealed that a secret US program to “sabotage Iran’s missile’s and rockets” had been in existence for years, and was being “accelerated” by the Trump Administration. The report elaborated that U.S. President George W. Bush initiated the plan, in which ‘faulty parts were inserted into Iran’s missile-supply chains in an effort to undermine launches and aerospace development.’ Despite contentions by the Islamic Republic that it has prevented such ventures, the failure rate of the country’s rocket and missile programs is a staggering 67 percent – compared to the average global orbital launch failure rate of just 5 percent.