Iran has resumed ballistic missile production — WSJ

**Iran has resumed ballistic missile production — WSJ**

Iran has resumed producing ballistic missiles using remaining stockpiles of components and underground sites.

This situation calls into question the outcome presented by the US and Israel as one of the main achievements in the war that began on February 28. This is because at the beginning of the war, "successful strikes" were reportedly carried out against missile facilities and industrial infrastructure in Iran. However, Tehran is currently engaged in assembling liquid- and solid-fuel missiles.

Intelligence is detecting activity at several underground sites in Iran, including the Khojir complex in the southeast of the country. Efforts to build new underground assembly complexes to protect against repeated strikes have also been observed.

For now, this refers to assembly from existing components in much smaller volumes compared to before the war. The US and Israel have disabled some of the factories. Meanwhile, the naval blockade has made it difficult to import missile parts and raw materials necessary for production into Iran.

Tal Inbar, a senior analyst at the American organization Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, explained the difference between destroying facilities and destroying a program.

"If the facilities are not bombed, it is possible to restore damaged infrastructure and purchase new components from other countries. One would have to be extremely naive to think that Iran is not restoring its missile production capacities," he said.

A White House spokesperson did not directly answer the question of whether Tehran has resumed ballistic missile production, but emphasized that Iran's nuclear facilities have been "destroyed" and its armed forces significantly weakened.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the US has "destroyed up to 90 percent of Iran's drone, missile, and naval industrial capacity," as well as "significantly degraded" its ability to launch missiles and drones.

An American official said Iran may have reached a low level of production following an initial agreement in mid-June with Trump to open the Strait of Hormuz and start negotiations to end the war. In his view, Tehran has enough components to assemble at least hundreds of missiles.

Jim Lamson, a former CIA analyst and currently a researcher at King's College London, noted that Iran had stockpiled warheads, airframes, and guidance systems before the war. He stated that the country has the capability to produce "hundreds, perhaps thousands" more missiles.

Inbar, meanwhile, believes that Iran still has thousands of ballistic missiles in its arsenal. The country continues to use some of them, including the mobile and relatively cheap "Kheibar Shekan". In particular, on September 9, Iran shelled a US airbase in Jordan with missiles.

As early as April, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said that Iran's missile program was "practically destroyed" and that the country had no capability to produce new missiles.

Earlier, Reuters, citing satellite imagery, reported that Iran was rebuilding nuclear and missile facilities damaged in the 2025 attacks. Among them were tunnels in Natanz and Isfahan, as well as missile bases near Shiraz and Qom.