For decades, Iran has treated missiles as its insurance policy against isolation, sanctions, and potential attack. With more than 3,000 ballistic missiles, it fields one of the largest arsenals in the Middle East, ranging from short-range Fateh and Zolfaghar systems to Shahab-3, Khorramshahr, and Sejjil medium-range missiles capable of reaching up to about 2,000 kilometers. These weapons, combined with cruise missiles like the Soumar and growing fleets of Shahed drones, allow Iran to mix high-speed ballistic strikes, low-flying radar-evading cruise attacks, and slow, saturating drone swarms aimed at overwhelming costly defenses such as the Patriot system.

Underground “missile cities,” carved into mountains and linked by tunnels, are meant to ensure that Iran can fire back even after heavy bombardment. Western intelligence agencies say Tehran still lacks intercontinental missiles, but its technology base is advancing. Each test, each new claim about hypersonic breakthroughs, feeds a regional arms race and shapes the calculations of rivals who must assume that, in any crisis, those tunnels will not stay silent.