An intelligence estimate has determined that Iran has the capacity to build approximately 50 ballistic missiles per month despite damage to its industrial capacity in the recent war, according to a Wednesday Bloomberg report. At roughly half of its pre-war capacity, months of airstrikes by the US-Israeli coalition in operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury, as well as economic sanctions and a blockade, the Iranian regime is still more than capable of resuming hostilities in force. Despite major damage to its military infrastructure, the Islamic Republic of Iran “likely has at least 1,700 ballistic missiles remaining,” and is building more every day, according to a Western official citing military intelligence reports.
“There could also be thousands of Shahed-type strike weapons remaining in its arsenal,” Jim Lamson, a research fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and former CIA analyst for the Middle East, told Bloomberg. Shahed-based weapons systems are unmanned drones that include “suicide” variants that blur the line between traditional drones and cruise missiles.
