Iran launched missiles at US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean. Here’s what that says about its capabilities | CNN Politics

Iran’s attempt to strike a US-UK base over 2,000 miles (over 3,000 kilometers) off its coast has renewed questions about Tehran’s military capabilities and how far its missiles can reach. On Friday morning local time, Iran launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, a US official told CNN, adding that neither of them struck the base. This marks what appears to be the first known attempt to target the base, which was deliberately built in a remote location beyond the reach of many adversaries. While the attack was unsuccessful, it shows that Iran may not be adhering its self-imposed missile range limit of 2,000 kilometers, raising concerns about whether Tehran could hit US and European interests farther away than previously thought. Jeffrey Lewis, distinguished scholar of global security at Middlebury College, told CNN that Iran was developing an intercontinental ballistic missile that was “reoriented to space launch” after then-Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei “imposed a 2,000-kilometer range limit” in 2017. “They were waiting for Khamenei to change his mind or, well, die,” Lewis said. “N