Iran's decision to fire two ballistic missiles towards the US–UK base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean on 20 March has jolted defence planners in Europe, who are being warned that much of the continent now lies within range of Tehran's evolving arsenal, according to Western and Israeli assessments. Although one missile fell into the sea and the other was intercepted, analysts say the attempted strike suggests Iran has quietly crossed a threshold that could reshape how NATO thinks about its own security.
For context, Iran has long insisted that its missiles are capped at a self‑imposed range limit of about 1,240 miles. Western governments treated that ceiling with suspicion but, for years, it provided a kind of diplomatic fig leaf. The Diego Garcia incident, directed at a remote atoll roughly 2,360 miles from Iran and capable of hosting US long‑range bombers, is now being cited as evidence that the range 'fiction,' as one expert put it, has effectively collapsed.
