Iran Watch wrote on January 26, “Israeli officials reportedly estimated the size of Iran’s remaining arsenal to be 1,500 missiles and 200 launchers at the war’s end but had observed signs by the end of 2025 that Iran was working on replenishing its stocks.” The organization published a list of Iran’s missile arsenal, detailing 27 different types of missiles (with sub-variants) with ranges from about 180 miles to 3,700 miles and a wide range of payload capacity.

Iran’s Last-Stand Strategy

Judge Cannon’s Flawed Order to Suppress Jack Smith’s Report on the Mar-a-Lago Documents Caper

The Iran Regime-Change War: Hoping for the Best, Preparing for the Worst

But JNS (the San Diego-based Jewish News Service)  reported March 2, “on the eve of the current operation, ‘Roaring Lion,’ Iran’s arsenal shot back up to 2,500 missiles, and was moving up by dozens of missiles per month, according to Israeli assessments.” That report indicated that Israel had also struck the sites where Iran produces its missiles.

The Israeli military official detailed the destruction caused in just two days to Iran’s central explosives production site. This targeted facility, which was not named, produced the explosive material required for ballistic missile warheads, as well as for other types of weapons, including rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. In addition to this central site, four key mixing facilities utilized specifically for producing ballistic missile engines were struck.

The Israeli military official detailed the destruction caused in just two days to Iran’s central explosives production site. This targeted facility, which was not named, produced the explosive material required for ballistic missile warheads, as well as for other types of weapons, including rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.

In addition to this central site, four key mixing facilities utilized specifically for producing ballistic missile engines were struck.

On Sunday, the Israeli military said that “airstrikes it has conducted since last June had destroyed about 200 Iranian ballistic missile launchers and rendered dozens more inoperable, roughly half of the launchers Iran currently has.”

Citing information from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Jordan, Defense Express calculated that Iran “launched at least 771 ballistic missiles at neighboring Arab countries and Israel.”

Note that part of the effectiveness of these missiles attacks is launching them in volleys in an attempt to overwhelm enemy air defenses.

Finding and destroying about 200 launchers seems like a considerably easier task than destroying thousands of missiles. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, during his briefing yesterday at the Pentagon:

We are aggressively pushing into that airspace over that southern flank to ensure that we control it and we destroy anything that moves that would attempt to shoot us. Think of it as shooting the archer instead of the arrows. That’s where we want to be. And we have the kind of exquisite intelligence to get over the top, find that and destroy it. It won’t happen overnight. This is a big battle space with a lot of capabilities. That’s part of the reason why it’s such a threat to us.

We are aggressively pushing into that airspace over that southern flank to ensure that we control it and we destroy anything that moves that would attempt to shoot us. Think of it as shooting the archer instead of the arrows. That’s where we want to be.

And we have the kind of exquisite intelligence to get over the top, find that and destroy it. It won’t happen overnight. This is a big battle space with a lot of capabilities. That’s part of the reason why it’s such a threat to us.

If you’ve been around long enough, you start to see the same patterns emerge. The current situation is not all that different from the U.S. and coalition allies hunting Iraq’s Scud missile launchers in January 1991. Saddam Hussein had used the Scuds to attack Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

© National Review