Iran's IRGC Promises Underground Missile Expansion

Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi said Saturday that the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps plans to unveil an underground missile production complex. Weapons manufacturing, he said, would continue even under enemy bombardment. He made the announcement at a Tehran press conference marking IRGC Aerospace Week. The message was plain: military production won’t stop, even when surface facilities face attack.

Missile production goes underground

Mohebbi said the IRGC Aerospace Force had developed flexible production capabilities, allowing it to shift missile and drone manufacturing from surface facilities to underground installations. The force had moved beyond underground sites for storing and preparing missiles, he said, and was building what he called “missile production cities.” The new complex and other defense achievements are expected to feature during this year’s IRGC Aerospace Week.

“We will not allow the enemy to halt the country’s weapons production and development process, even for a moment,” Mohebbi said. That’s a pledge to keep the production apparatus running through bombardment, not pause it. He said Iran’s extensive territory, indigenous technical expertise and decentralized production infrastructure would make it harder for adversaries to disrupt manufacturing.

Mohebbi said an adversary had underestimated Iran’s ability to replenish missile and drone stocks, assuming the number of weapons launched would reveal how long the country’s military capabilities could last. He described the IRGC Aerospace Force’s approach as asymmetric warfare: using vulnerabilities in adversaries’ military and non-military assets, and striking unexpected locations.

Weapons, claims and counterclaims

Mohebbi said Iran had shifted from largely depending on imported military equipment to producing and exporting defense systems. He cited the Shahed-136 drone, saying its design had drawn international attention and several countries, including the United States, had replicated it. He also named the Arman missile, the 358 drone and the Khordad-3 air defense system as products developed and exported by the force.

He reported that Iranian forces had taken control of, destroyed or forced to land seven enemy MQM-180 reconnaissance drones over the preceding two weeks. He also said the IRGC Aerospace Force had intercepted and destroyed more than 260 enemy aircraft and aerial vehicles during what he called the “Third Sacred Defense, or the Ramadan War.” His figure included F-35, F-16, F-5 and F-18 fighter jets, MQ-1 and RQ-4 drones, Orbiter and Lucas unmanned aerial vehicles, and other systems. Mohebbi said the count covered the IRGC Aerospace Force alone; Iranian Army air defense operations would be announced separately.

Those figures and claims came from Mohebbi at the press conference. He said improvements that reduced the radar cross-section of Iranian missiles and drones helped them evade radar, penetrate layers of enemy air defenses and strike designated targets. He said THAAD had proved ineffective against some Iranian attacks, and Patriot systems had also experienced failures.

A mission without geographic limits

Mohebbi said restrictions on the range of Iranian missiles had been lifted following directives by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, who called for an immediate and effective response to threats without geographical limitations. “This restriction has been lifted for us,” Mohebbi said, adding that expanded capabilities should be demonstrated in practice rather than merely discussed.

He said retaliatory operations against enemy military and strategic infrastructure, including artificial intelligence and data-processing facilities, had demonstrated Iran’s deterrent capabilities and forced the adversary to reconsider military actions. The force, he said, was prepared to defend Iran’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, national identity and Iranian-Islamic civilization, with no geographical limits on its defensive mission.

Mohebbi also cited cooperation between the IRGC Aerospace Force and universities, research institutions, scientific centers and industry as important to defense development. He said new capabilities could be unveiled and deployed if a third wave of confrontation began, and some might be revealed earlier if circumstances and strategic considerations permitted. He described Iran as having withstood pressure from a coalition of major powers despite sanctions, and stressed documenting and presenting its scientific and military achievements internationally. The central commitment was to keep the military production system running—and move more of it underground.