{"id":451682,"date":"2026-03-01T08:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/451682\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T08:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:39:14","slug":"does-iran-have-the-military-capacity-to-sustain-retaliatory-strikes-against-us-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/451682\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Iran have the military capacity to sustain retaliatory strikes against US, Israel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tehran and other Iranian cities came under heavy fire<\/a> on Saturday as the US and Israel launched \u201cpre-emptive\u201d strikes against the West Asian country bordering T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n

The US-Israel joint strikes aim to take out Iranian leadership, nuclear facilities, and missile infrastructure. The civilian death toll<\/a> is already rising as a US-Israeli bombing on a girls\u2019 school in southern Iran killed at least 40 people in initial strikes.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump asked<\/a> the Iranian people to \u201ctopple their rulers,\u201d while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described<\/a> the operation necessary to eliminate an \u201cexistential threat\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iran has retaliated<\/a> with the \u201cfirst wave\u201d of missile and drone attacks on Israel, with some reaching Israeli airspace<\/a> and triggering sirens across the country.<\/p>\n

Separately, Iran hit US bases<\/a> in Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Jordan.<\/p>\n

Despite the swift response, experts warn that Tehran is fighting back with significantly degraded capabilities following the 12-Day War with Israel in June 2025.<\/p>\n

The 2025 war destroyed roughly one-third of Iran\u2019s missile launchers<\/a> and depleted long-range missile stocks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Iranian government has also faced a depletion in its political capital in recent months. Mass protests over economic conditions have eroded the appearance of political cohesion in the country.<\/p>\n

Reports say Iran has paid special attention to rebuilding its military capability lost during last year\u2019s war against Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been widely reported that Iran has been rapidly replenishing its ballistic missile supplies since its 12-Day War with Israel last June,\u201d Matthew Bryza, former US ambassador and an Istanbul-based international affairs specialist, tells TRT World.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran retains 2,000 or so ballistic missiles,\u201d he says, while noting uncertainty over attack drones that Iran has reportedly supplied to Russia for use in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

According to Oral Toga, a researcher at the Ankara-based Centre for Iranian Studies (IRAM), Iran\u2019s post-2025 inventory has fallen from about 2,500 to 1,500 missiles, while two-thirds of its launchers have also been destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, thanks to an industrial base capable of producing several hundred missiles per month and underground \u2018missile cities\u2019 built over decades, Iran is assessed to have significantly replenished its stockpiles,\u201d he tells TRT World.<\/p>\n

Quoting Israeli intelligence analyses conveyed to the US, Toga says there were still approximately 2,000 heavy ballistic missiles in the Iranian inventory prior to Saturday\u2019s strikes.<\/p>\n

In the so-called first wave of retaliation, Iran launched around 35 ballistic missiles at Israel, while simultaneously hitting multiple US bases across Gulf nations, he says.<\/p>\n

The primary objective of the US-Israeli strikes is to dismantle Iran\u2019s missile architecture.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut rendering mobile launchers and dispersed underground sites completely inoperative is technically extraordinarily difficult,\u201d Toga says.<\/p>\n

Therefore, Iran retains the capacity to carry out additional ballistic missile strikes in the \u201ccoming hours and days\u201d.<\/p>\n

In other words, Tehran is currently at a diminishing, but far from zeroed-out capacity, he says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s proxy forces, from Iraq to Lebanon<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s so-called \u2018Axis of Resistance\u2019 stands largely battered<\/a>, as each member of the loose network of militants from Iraq to Lebanon and Yemen has taken serious hits over the last two years.<\/p>\n

For example, Hezbollah has suffered devastating losses<\/a> since 2024.<\/p>\n

But whether Tehran is able to revive Shia militant group to use it as a proxy in the fight against Israel is \u201cunclear\u201d at the moment, says Bryza.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has reportedly attacked presumably Hezbollah positions in Lebanon today, after having devastated Hezbollah\u2019s leadership and command-and-control systems last year,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Toga sounds more sure. He insists that Hezbollah has lost much of its leadership already.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an active disarmament process underway in Lebanon. So do not expect the Hezbollah of 2006,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tehran and other Iranian cities came under heavy fire on Saturday as the US and Israel launched \u201cpre-emptive\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-451682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}