On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched surprise attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran, starting a large-scale war that spilled out into a region-wide conflict. Because Iran is such a large nation with over 93 million people and a sizable military, it’s natural to question what the U.S. and Israel have gotten themselves into. After all, before the war began, Iran had plenty of warships in its navy, leading many to wonder about its ground forces in case the U.S. and Israel deploy troops to the country.

Iran has a rather large military, or rather, it had one before the conflict began. Most of its strength in terms of tanks came from those supplied by the Soviet Union, but the nation does produce many domestic tanks as well. Its equipment includes self-propelled artillery units, which are different from tanks, towed artillery, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, and more. In terms of tanks, Iran has, or had, around 1,900 of various types, though their total strength remains unclear.

This estimate is from the Iran Military Power report, published by the United States Defense Intelligence Agency in 2019. While the information may be somewhat out of date, the lack of overt military conflicts using armored vehicles like tanks in the years since its publication suggests the numbers are as close to accurate as can be determined as of writing.

Iran maintains two ground forces: the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces, the nation’s standing army, and the IRGC Ground Forces, which falls under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. While separate, they employ similar equipment. Iran has one light tank called the Tosan, of which an unknown number are in service. This is a domestically produced tank that weighs less than 10 tons. It also operates Chieftain Main Battle Tanks (MBTs), which are domestically upgraded into the Mobarez MBT.

These, alongside around 50 upgraded M-60A1 MBTs provided by the United States, don’t represent much in terms of combat capability. Iran’s tank strength lies in its various versions of the Soviet-made T-72 MBTs, of which Iran operates several models. In 2020, Iran began upgrading its fleet of T-72s, of which it claimed to possess 565. The veracity of that figure cannot be confirmed, but it’s likely that Iran had in its possession several hundred working T-72s at the start of the 2026 war.

Iran also uses three models of the Zulfiqar MBT, which is based on both the T-72 and M-60, and is domestically produced. It’s unclear how many Iran has, though WarPowerIran places the total number at 250. The most recently developed MBT that’s domestically produced and operated by Iran is the Karrar, of which it’s believed around 100 are in use. Because of the secretive nature of the Iranian government and the IRGC, it’s impossible to know for sure, though total estimates put the number at around 1,900 tanks, though all models are incomparable to something like the U.S.’ M1A2 Abrams MBT.