# Iran’s Underground Missile Cities and Military Strategy

- Original post: https://www.twitter.com/i/status/2100056327837942186
- Source account: [@Mark4XX](https://x.com/Mark4XX)
- Source language: English
- Duration: 1:58
- Published: 2026-09-16
- Canonical URL: https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy

## Transcript

[0:00](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy) Everybody knew that Iran had spent years excavating bunkers for its strike forces, and indeed their TV had shown footage of many of those facilities.

[0:12](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=12) Western analysts say that around 35 of these missile cities were central to their war plans.

[0:20](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=20) The main point of them was to shelter the ballistic missiles that would be used to hit Israel and America's Gulf Arab allies.

[0:29](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=29) When attacks started in February, the Americans and Israelis did have many successes knocking out missile launchers.

[0:38](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=38) The rate at which Iran fired them fell steeply by as much as 80%.

[0:45](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=45) But since airstrikes could not harm the missiles that were deep underground, they had to focus on blocking the entrances to these complexes by caving in the access tunnels.

[0:58](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=58) The Iranians hunkered down, launching their surviving missiles more slowly and digging out the tunnel entrances whenever they got the chance.

[1:09](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=69) And commanders rued the difficulties of attacking bunkers so deep that none of America's munitions could touch them. They've hardened something else too, the way they command their forces. A system known as Mosaic Command meant that when the senior leadership was killed on the first night, those in positions of responsibility

[1:31](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=91) elsewhere had already got authority to start the counter strikes.

[1:37](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=97) And there's another thing about all those underground storage points.

[1:41](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=101) They also got used for the speed boats, drones, and missiles that would be used to close the Strait of Hormuz.

[1:51](https://www.translate.mom/transcript/Eq2Ai5itruUP/en/iran-s-underground-missile-cities-and-military-strategy?t=111) Quite simply, they had built big weapons stockpiles, and America hadn't.