Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has unveiled a new subterranean “missile city”.
According to IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency, the complex houses various ballistic and cruise missiles as well as launch platforms. The agency did not disclose location, weapon quantities, or independent evidence regarding the facility’s scale or operational status.
RGC Aerospace Force commander Mousavi warned that Iran retains the capability to strike enemy assets across and beyond the region if necessary.
Advanced ballistic and cruise weaponry
The subterranean facilities house a comprehensive array of strategic and tactical weapons, ranging from precision-guided short-, medium-, and long-range ballistic missiles to cruise missile platforms.
Among specific ballistic platforms stored across the network are Kheibarshekan missile, Shahab-2, Shahab-3, and liquid-fuelled Qiam-1, which possesses a reported operational range of 800 kilometres.
The underground inventory also features precision tactical ballistic systems, anti-ship cruise missiles, and high-speed anti-ship ballistic variants engineered for coastal denial operations across regional maritime corridors.
According to IRGC spokesman Mohebbi and Aerospace Force commander Mousavi, Tehran has shifted active missile and drone production lines from surface facilities into these subterranean complexes, designating them as “missile production cities” to ensure weapons manufacturing continues under aerial bombardment.
Launch systems and subterranean silo infrastructure
To deploy its arsenal, Iran’s missile cities contain mobile Transporter Erector Launchers (TELs) mounted on launcher trucks, pop-up launch mechanisms, and vertical launch shafts bored directly into mountain slopes.
Vertical firing silos are integrated into mountain faces at southern bases such as Khormuj, which contains nine vertical launch shafts, as well as at Khorgo and Jam, which includes two launch shafts alongside five tunnel entrances.
Specialised installations, including Dezful underground base and Bandar Abbas Naval Missile Base, incorporate interior subterranean railway networks that roll heavy ballistic platforms directly from deep mountain vaults out to coastal or forward firing points.
Intelligence assessments indicate that roughly 60 per cent of Iran’s missile and drone launchers remain intact or have been recovered from damaged sites.
Underground manufacturing and propellant processing depots
Beyond weapon storage and firing platforms, the complexes contain full-scale domestic industrial assembly infrastructure, including solid and liquid propellant processing plants, multi-stage motor assembly vaults, and structural casing fabrication units.
Sprawling aerospace hubs feature large-scale horizontal test stands alongside deeply tunneled R&D laboratories at facilities such as Parchin and Karaj, which specialise in warhead explosive testing, chemical propellant synthesis, counter-radar shielding, and automated guidance electronics.
Dedicated chemical depots, such as Manzariyah fuel site, maintain insulated subterranean storage tanks and mixing facilities to process toxic liquid rocket propellants for active launch batteries.
Hardened mountain architecture and transit networks
Structurally, Iran’s missile cities consist of multi-kilometre webs of mountain tunnels, concrete entrance portals, subterranean caverns, and earth-covered ammunition depots known as igloos.
Facilities such as Northern Kermanshah base contain 63 igloo bunkers and six tunnel entrances, while the Panj-Peleh Garrison (Imam Hassan Garrison) maintains 80 earth-covered depots.
Deep fortresses, such as the Ya Haydar Karar Base in the Alborz Mountains, are excavated at depths between 500 and 700 metres underground to withstand potential nuclear strikes while hosting mass production and automated launch systems.
Alongside Strait of Hormuz, coastal outposts such as Qeshm Island Fortress feature underground maritime networks carved into island terrain to conceal naval missile platforms.
Inventory scale and operational survivability
International intelligence mapping indicates that Tehran’s strategic ballistic missile capability is anchored around approximately 30 critical underground and surface installations.
US Central Command previously evaluated Iran’s stockpile at more than 3,000 ballistic missiles in 2022, while updated assessments estimate the inventory has decreased to fewer than 2,000 missiles following sustained military attacks.
Earlier this year, Israeli military intelligence estimated Tehran held about 2,500 ballistic missiles while producing dozens of new units per month, whereas a Reuters report estimated functional inventory at 1,000 to 1,500 missiles.
A May 2026 assessment by Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) estimated Iran launched roughly 2,200 to 2,400 ballistic missiles across four major operational waves between 2024 and 2026.
Despite targeted airstrikes, up to 90 per cent of Iran’s fortified missile cities and tunnel storage sites are estimated to remain partially or fully operational.
