Iran's Military Strategy and Bunker Systems

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.

Western analysts say that around 35 of these

missile cities were central to their war plans.

The main point of them was to shelter the ballistic missiles that

would be used to hit Israel and America's Gulf Arab

allies.

When attacks started in February, the Americans and

Israelis did have many successes knocking out missile

launchers.

The rate at which Iran fired them fell steeply by

as much as 80%.

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.

The Iranians hunkered down,

launching their surviving missiles more slowly and digging out

the tunnel entrances whenever they got the chance.

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

elsewhere had already got authority to start the counter

strikes.

And there's another thing about all those underground storage points.

They also got used for the speed boats, drones, and

missiles that would be used to close the Strait of Hormuz.

Quite simply, they had built big weapons stockpiles, and

America hadn't.