Military Briefing: How Iran Keeps Firing Missiles Under Bombardment

Iran is waging its missile campaign against Israel and the Gulf states under conditions that would normally incapacitate a modern military.

It has endured sustained, unchallenged air attacks; disruption of communications networks; and targeted killings of senior commanders.

Yet despite what Israeli and US officials claim is the near-total suppression of Iran’s missile-firing capacity, Tehran has retained a limited but persistent ability to co-ordinate strikes. That highlights what experts said was a system designed for wartime attrition.

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Experts believe that missile fire is coming mainly from mobile launchers rather than from the static emplacements in a dozen massive underground bunkers, dubbed Iran’s “missile cities”, which have been heavily bombed by the US and Israel.  

“Above-ground launchers, with their time-consuming fueling and targeting preparations, are much more vulnerable. But they’re also mobile and much more plentiful and expendable,” said Jonathan Ruhe, fellow for American strategy at JINSA, a Washington-based think-tank. Even if the US and Israeli claim that more than 70 per cent had been destroyed or put out of action were true, he said, “the mobile launchers are Iran’s better option to sustain a steady rate of missile fire”. 

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