Iran has successfully restored access to numerous underground missile facilities after recent US and Israeli strikes targeted them. Satellite imagery indicates that Iranian crews have been actively clearing debris and repairing roads to reopen tunnel entrances.
Photo : AP
Iran has restored access to many of its underground missile facilities following weeks of US and Israeli strikes, according to a new report by CNN that cited satellite imagery it reviewed. The images show Iranian crews using construction equipment, including bulldozers, front-end loaders and dump trucks, to clear debris, reopen tunnel entrances and repair roads damaged during the conflict.
Military analysts quoted in the report said that the developments highlight the challenges of neutralising Iran’s extensive network of underground missile bases, many of which have been under construction for more than two decades.
During the conflict, the United States and Israel focused on targeting tunnel entrances and access roads to Iran’s underground missile facilities, aiming to prevent missile launchers from operating. According to CNN’s analysis, Iran has now reopened 50 of the 69 tunnel entrances struck at 18 underground missile facilities.
At a missile base in Dezful, satellite imagery from May 12 showed that four of the site’s five tunnel entrances had been reopened, with only one remaining blocked. Roads damaged by air strikes have also been repaired. Images reviewed by CNN show that craters created to restrict vehicle movement have largely been filled in, with some roads repaved.
Military analysts say the repair effort has accelerated since a ceasefire between Iran and the United States took effect more than seven weeks ago.
What We Know About the Missile Stockpile
Experts believe Iran still possesses approximately 1,000 missiles stored within underground facilities. Because many of the sites are buried beneath hundreds of metres of rock, analysts say strikes on tunnel entrances are unlikely to have significantly damaged missile stockpiles located deeper underground.
“They were preparing for this kind of war for 20 years,” said Timur Kadyshev, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg.
Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told CNN that Iran retains the ability to continue launching missiles if hostilities resume. “There’s nothing to prevent the launchers from being armed with the ample stockpile of missiles that the Iranians still have,” he said. “Iran is in position to continue launching missiles so long as they have launchers and crews, even if production has halted.”
What Trump Has Said About Iran’s Missiles
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran’s missile programme as one of the principal targets of military action. In a post on Truth Social in March, Trump listed “completely degrading Iranian Missile Capability, Launchers, and everything else pertaining to them” among what he described as the war’s objectives.
Alongside strikes on missile bases, the US and Israel also targeted Iran’s missile manufacturing network, including facilities involved in producing electronic components, rocket propellants and missile bodies.
After a ceasefire was agreed on April 8, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth argued that Iran’s military-industrial capabilities had been severely degraded.
“You’ll be digging out your remaining launchers and missiles, with no ability to replace them. You have no defense industry,” he said.
Satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows extensive reconstruction work at several missile facilities. At a site outside Isfahan, where multiple strikes were carried out against four tunnel entrances, images from early May showed construction crews filling craters and reopening access routes.
At another underground missile base near Khomeyn, at least 10 construction vehicles were visible clearing debris from a tunnel entrance in mid-April.
Analysts note that while the strikes caused significant disruption, reopening damaged facilities has required relatively basic equipment and engineering work.
