AFAIK MOD supplies engines for ISA not IRGC
So the 2 IRGC missile engineers that died in an “accident” at ISA launch site
were there doing what exactly? On vacation? Walking their dog?
Come on, MOD is a MINISTRY. That’s like saying the Pentagon makes the F-35 because they “supply” the planes.
MOD contract out their engines to……IRGC backed companies. That’s how the procurement process works. ISA reaches out to MOD who reaches out to necessary powers that be involved in that expertise. There isn’t some civilian rocket engine company like you see in the West. Everyone is tied to the military and the the holder of military engine secrets is IRGC, not MOD.
You aren’t building Missile engines without IRGC engineers. The parts, the components, the fuel, the software, etc all need IRGC assistance to get assembled and delivered.
$100-150m is very low but not nothing compared to $5-10m under Rouhani (cut from $70m prior to that), that's a huge cut which will clearly end most progress
You must remember Iran was also going thru terrible economic times (including COVID). Space was a luxury. And there was zero breakthroughs
weird thing is MOD also has more powerful engines than SCUD engines (Khorramshahr) but still relies on SCUD in Simorgh
MOD doesn’t have ANYTHING. It’s a government agency. That’s like saying the Pentagon/department of defense has nukes or Patriot missile systems.
And even newer ISA SLV like Zoljanah relies on IRGC tech.
I don’t know why people on here seem to think the engines are coming from some mysterious non affiliated IRGC companies. Iran’s entire missile program was built by IRGC going back to the Iran and Iraq war. It’s first engineers were trained in Syria and Libya. IRGC was the one who traveled to North Korea for SCUD missile purchases and ToT discussion. It’s nuclear program head (Fakhrizadeh) was IRGC. Mayor of Tehran (Qalibaf) again former IRGC.
I remember a quote I forgot if it was Hajizadeh or another general at the time, this was years ago, but he said something along the lines of
“we delivered Simorgh in 2012, but it was [Rouhani] who refused to launch it. Not due to us. It has been ready”. This was during a long stretch of no launches during I believe Rouhani’s first term.
So any notion that IRGC is not directly involved with ISA program is just naive. Especially when IRGC engineers and launch specialists are at the launchpads.