Iran’s state propaganda agency Fars News released footage this week that shows a vast underground tunnel network packed with rows of Shahed suicide drones and ballistic missiles — an attempt to intimidate Washington and its allies that the regime’s arsenal is full, even as their rate of fire rapidly declines.
The video, set to a ticking-clock soundtrack, used drone cinematography to show a large scale network of tunnels. It is the latest in a series of propaganda releases from Fars as Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is shelled during the fifth day of Operation Epic Fury.
The footage does represent a problem for the United States and its allies: Iran’s offensive weapons are cheap compared to the cost of shooting them down.
Shahed drones cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce and can be built rapidly. The American-made Patriot interceptor missiles used to stop them cost nearly $5 million apiece.
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In Iran : State Media Showcases Underground Drone Arsenal in New Propaganda Video
Iran’s Fars News Agency, a state media outlet aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has released a propaganda video revealing what it describes as a vast underground drone stockpile,… pic.twitter.com/TdNI2o5NWz
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US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, head of US Central Command, reported that Iran has launched more than 500 ballistic missiles and 2,000 drones so far in the conflict, but have not slowed the U.S. military, which has seized control of the entire Iranian airspace.
“We’ve already struck nearly 2,000 targets, with more than 2,000 munitions,” Cooper said. “We have severely degraded Iran’s air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran’s ballistic missiles, launchers and drones. In simple terms, we are focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us.”
Iran’s underground weapons network has been built over decades of deliberate planning. Following the 1991 Gulf War, Iranian leaders knew they could not win a conventional air battle against the United States. The response was hundreds of miles of tunnels, missile silos, and command posts buried beneath Iranian mountains.
There are at least five underground “missile cities” in the country. The mountain bunkers hide road-mobile launchers, concealed launch systems, and transport tunnels deep under ground, designed to survive an opening strike.
The Pentagon has deployed B-2 stealth bombers flying direct from the United States to target those buried facilities, dropping 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs. The B-2 bomber is one of the few American weapons systems capable of penetrating deeply buried mountain bunkers.