Iran is reportedly producing ballistic missiles again inside underground facilities despite months of U.S. and Israeli strikes. Washington says up to 90% of Iran’s missile-industrial base was destroyed. But destroyed factories are not the same as destroyed knowledge. Iran was weakened — not disarmed.
Iran Was Bombed. It Was Not Disarmed.
TEHRAN — Iran has resumed assembling ballistic missiles at underground facilities, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern officials, challenging claims that months of American and Israeli strikes had effectively destroyed Tehran’s missile-production capability.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Iran is using stockpiled components to assemble missiles in limited quantities at sites including the underground Khojir complex southeast of Tehran while constructing additional subterranean facilities designed to survive future attacks.
Production remains far below prewar levels. U.S. strikes damaged major industrial facilities, while the maritime blockade has restricted Tehran’s ability to import components and materials required for missile propellant.
But the larger lesson is clear:
Iran’s missile industry was degraded, not eliminated.
Underground Iran Is Becoming the Next Battlefield
The United States says it destroyed as much as 90% of Iran’s drone, ballistic-missile and naval industrial base.
That is an enormous loss.
Yet a missile program does not disappear simply because factories are destroyed.
Iran entered the war with existing components, technical expertise, underground infrastructure and a large missile inventory. U.S. and regional officials now believe Tehran is using those surviving assets to rebuild incrementally.
Iran is also adapting.
Instead of reconstructing large exposed industrial complexes, Tehran appears to be moving more assembly deeper underground and dispersing production.
That makes every future campaign more difficult.
Iran Still Has Missiles — and Is Using Them
Recent attacks demonstrate that the remaining arsenal is not merely theoretical.
Iran has launched increasingly sophisticated ballistic missiles against U.S. naval forces and American positions in the region. U.S. officials say some recent weapons used maneuverable warheads and produced much closer encounters with American warships than earlier attacks.
Iran has also unveiled an improved ballistic missile that it says has greater accuracy and a range exceeding 1,200 kilometers.
The United States has so far prevented major damage in several of these attacks.
But the strategic question is shifting from how many missiles Iran lost to how quickly it can replace them.
WARYATV Assessment
This is the fundamental problem confronting President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Air power can destroy factories.
It can kill commanders.
It can eliminate launchers and warehouses.
What it struggles to destroy permanently is technical knowledge combined with a state determined to regenerate its capabilities underground.
Iran does not need to restore its entire prewar missile industry immediately.
It needs enough production to keep replenishing weapons faster than Washington and Israel can eliminate them.
That turns the conflict into an industrial contest.
And industrial wars are ultimately measured not by the damage inflicted in the first strike, but by who can rebuild faster than the enemy can destroy.
WARYATV Bottom Line
The United States and Israel unquestionably inflicted extraordinary damage on Iran’s missile infrastructure.
But reports of resumed production demonstrate why claims of complete destruction should be treated cautiously.
Iran was weakened. Iran was not disarmed.
And if Tehran succeeds in shifting more missile production into hardened underground networks, the next phase of the war could become substantially more difficult.
The decisive question is no longer whether America can destroy Iranian missile factories.
It has demonstrated that it can.
The question is whether it can stop Iran from building them again.
