Iran showcases ambition and advances at military museum after setbacks of Israel war

An NBC News film crew was given exclusive access to the National Aerospace Park on Wednesday, a rarity for a foreign news organization.

By Amin Khodadadi and Babak Dehghanpisheh

TEHRAN, Iran — Welcome to the missile museum.

That’s what locals call the vast exhibition space that reopened this week on the outskirts of the Iranian capital, Tehran. But make no mistake, the facility is a live demonstration of the Islamic Republic’s resolve to project growing strength after a chastening year of attacks by Israel and the United States.

The National Aerospace Park, as it’s more formally known, allows citizens a close-up look at the hardware that the country’s most powerful military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, takes most pride in: missiles and drones.

An NBC News film crew was given exclusive access to the facility on Wednesday, a rarity for a foreign news organization.

Visitors took selfies while walking through one portion of the museum with missiles lining each side.

One woman wearing a black chador, an all-encompassing garment some observant Muslim women wear, took pictures of a young boy in front of a truck-mounted missile launcher. Some of the larger missiles stretched from floor to ceiling, and visitors were allowed to scribble their own messages, like “Death to America,” in black marker on replicas.

“This place is a symbol of believing in ourselves, a place that says we can,” IRGC Maj. Gen. Ali Balali, who is the director of the museum, said in an interview. “Most of the missiles here were used in the recent war, and these aren’t even our latest.”

“All of these missiles are domestic,” he added. “Even if they surround our country with cement and barbed wire, we will still build.”

There is a mounting sense that war may once again be around the corner. Iranian officials are sounding increasingly bullish after the vulnerabilities exposed by its 12-day conflict with Israel this summer, which included the U.S. bombing of its nuclear facilities.

Iran’s ballistic missile program — which Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said is nonnegotiable — is one of many sticking points that have prevented the U.S. and the Islamic Republic from reaching a deal on the country’s disputed nuclear program.

The museum was built in 2020 on the order of IRGC Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guard’s aerospace program, who, like many other top commanders, was killed in an Israeli attack in the early days of the war in June.

On the walkway leading up to the entrance, visitors are greeted by life-size cutouts of individuals whom the Islamic Republic promotes as key figures in its “axis of resistance,” including Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the late head of the IRGC’s foreign operations unit, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020, and Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024.

The missiles are the first thing on display, including the Fattah, which the Guard claims can both penetrate Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system and has a range of 1,400 kilometers, or approximately 870 miles.

Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel last summer, killing at least 29 people, and Israeli attacks killed more than 1,000 Iranians.

It’s Aerospace Week in Iran, an opportunity to pay tribute to those killed in past conflicts but also to showcase progress that could make it a more formidable opponent in the future.

The museum on Tuesday played host to a public test of the engine of a Shahed stealth drone, according to the semiofficial Mehr news agency.

Spectators at the museum get up close with an Iranian missile replica, framed by a large mural dedicated to missile scientists. Amin Khodadadi / NBC News

Though best known for their use by Tehran’s ally Russia in its aerial assaults on Ukraine, the drones are likely to be key to Iran’s approach to any upcoming conflict of its own.

Variations of the Shahed, with black and tan outer shells, are on display in one area of the facility.

Also on display are drones allegedly belonging to Israel and the U.S. that the IRGC claims to have downed and subsequently reverse-engineered. Israeli and American flags are painted on the floor in the entrance to this section.

Like most museums, the Aerospace Park has a gift shop. Among the items on sale are miniature drone and missile replicas, and a sign beside one hypersonic missile model reads, “7 Minutes to Tel Aviv.”

The museum allows Iranians whose views align with the country’s leadership to take pride in Iran’s military accomplishments after a bruising war that highlighted its defensive vulnerabilities.

“After the 12-day war, we realized our strength. The world also recognized it,” said Ayat, a member of the Basij militia, which is commanded by the Guard. “We come here with our Basij group often to see this power,” said Ayat, who, like others NBC News spoke to, declined to give his last name to a foreign media organization.

Hussein, a university student visiting the museum, had a similar view.

“It’s a pity this place isn’t always open. For us, it’s like visiting a holy shrine,” he said.

Amin Khodadadi reported from Tehran, and Babak Dehganpisheh from New York/