(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Park Seong-min = Iran has resumed production of ballistic missiles by assembling parts it had stockpiled in underground facilities, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 10th (local time), citing U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.
Some officials told WSJ that even though the United States and Israel heavily attacked Iran's missile bases and production facilities in the early stages of the war, Iran is constantly reassembling its missiles.
It has been reported that Iran has begun reproducing both liquid-propellant missiles, which require fuel injection just before launch, and solid-propellant missiles, which can be stored in a ready-to-launch state.
These officials say that such activities are being detected at several underground bases, including the missile facility in Kozir, southeastern Iran.
In particular, they reported that Iran is attempting to build a new underground missile production base to avoid attack.
The United States and Israel have destroyed many facilities for the production of missiles and parts, and the maritime blockade has made it difficult to import parts and solid fuel materials, so production is lower than before the war, but new missiles are being assembled using existing parts.
The WSJ pointed out, "This undermines a major achievement of the war that the United States and Israel have been touting," and added, "It shows how difficult it is to completely dismantle Iran's missile program and strengthens Iran's ability to withstand a war of attrition between Iran's weapons stockpile and the interceptor missile stockpile of the United States and the Gulf region."
“Without airstrikes against the facility, damaged infrastructure can be repaired and new parts can be purchased from other countries to stock the facility,” said Tal Invar, senior analyst at the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA), a U.S. non-profit organization. “It is extremely naive to think that Iran is not rebuilding its missile production capabilities.”
The Trump administration, including U.S. President Donald Trump, has argued that Iran's military capabilities have been significantly weakened.
A White House official did not directly comment on whether Iran had resumed production of ballistic missiles, but told the WSJ that "Iran is now weaker than it has ever been, and President Trump will never allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons."
Sean Parnell, chief spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense (Department of War), also said, "We have destroyed 90% of Iran's drone and ballistic missile naval industrial base," and that Iran's offensive capabilities have been "significantly weakened."
However, WSJ pointed out that Iran has been taking advantage of the short lull to rebuild its military capabilities since signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United States last June.
One U.S. official said that Iran may have resumed small-scale production around this time, and appears to be capable of assembling at least hundreds of missiles from parts it currently possesses.
Jim Lamson, a former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst who is a visiting researcher specializing in Iranian military affairs at King's College London, said that before the war, Iran had stockpiled parts such as completed warheads, airframes, guidance and control systems, and estimated that the number of missiles that Iran could rebuild could amount to "hundreds or possibly thousands."
Senior expert Invar assessed that Iran still possesses thousands of ballistic missiles.
Of course, it seems difficult for Iran to fully resume missile production. Arab regional officials pointed out that damage to chemical facilities needed to manufacture liquid propellants and industrial mixers for solid fuel production were an obstacle to Iran's full resumption of missile production.
However, Iran has already proven its ability to quickly rebuild missile production, even though it suffered a major blow in the '12 Day War' with Israel in June last year.
For this reason, Israel strongly warned against Iran's moves to rebuild its ballistic missile capabilities at the end of last year and hinted at the possibility of additional military action.
In this regard, Nicole Graevsky, an expert on Iranian strategy at the Paris School of Economics, said, "They could try to destroy the facility, or they could try to destroy the missile itself, but (Iran's missile production) reconstruction capabilities are faster than the nuclear program, and the facilities are quite dispersed," and added, "The reason Iran built such a sophisticated missile infrastructure was because it was concerned about this (additional airstrikes)."
