Bloomberg has admitted that Iran missile production has survived months of US and Israeli bombing, reporting that Tehran managed to preserve its missile and drone factories and is now replenishing its arsenal. Citing Western officials who asked not to be named, the US outlet reported on Friday that Iran still has the capacity to manufacture weapons and rebuild its stockpiles.
Iran missile production: “well-stocked” and growing
One Western official told Bloomberg that Iran remains well-stocked with ballistic missiles and some anti-ship weapons, and can quickly add more. According to the report, the assessments suggest Iran has enough firepower to retaliate effectively if the United States resumes strikes. Western intelligence estimates as recently as June indicated that Iran retained roughly three-quarters of the munitions it held before the war.
The findings cut against repeated claims from Washington. President Trump has said Iran’s military was “totally destroyed,” and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed on September 30 that the US had wiped out Iran’s “military industrial capacity.” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly rejected the assessment in a statement to Bloomberg, repeating the claim that US operations had destroyed Iran’s ballistic missiles, production facilities and navy.
Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told Bloomberg that Iran’s anti-ship missile stockpiles likely remain large, because the weapons are comparatively easy to make and the country’s southern mountains offer natural shelter from air attack.
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Tehran: output up 2.5 times on pre-war levels
Iran’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Brig. Gen. Reza Talaei-Nik, said on Thursday that “the hands of the armed forces are full” and that there is no shortage of weapons in facing the enemy, Press TV reported. He said production in the seven months after the imposed war was 2.5 times higher than in the same period before the conflict. The increase, he said, came from secure alternative production sites and the involvement of some 9,000 private knowledge-based companies, while strategic reserves have been kept above consumption levels.
Sources: Bloomberg, Press TV
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