Cruise missiles in the Middle East
Cruise missiles are an often-overlooked and opaque regional proliferation challenge in the Middle East. This MDI paper provides a technical analysis of current national inventories and development programmes in the Middle East. Considering these programmes, this paper also assesses what drives regional states to develop cruise-missile technology and what the potential implications of this are for regional stability.
While both the proliferation and combat use of ballistic missiles in the Middle East have attracted a lot of attention, cruise missiles remain an often-overlooked regional proliferation challenge. Once the exclusive realm of the Middle East’s sole nuclear power, Israel, the proliferation of cruise-missile systems has steadily picked up pace in the last two decades. Iran and Turkey have joined Israel in the club of nations developing and producing their own cruise missiles, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) appearing to take first steps in this direction. Other countries, such as Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have already purchased cruise missiles from abroad or appear intent on doing so in the near future. This trend is not limited to state actors, however. With strong technical and material support from Iran, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have employed cruise missiles in their ongoing missile and uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) campaign against the Saudi-led coalition.
https://www.iiss.org/blogs/research-paper/2021/09/cruise-missiles-in-the-middle-east
