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U.S. and Israel Target Iran's Underground "Missile Cities"
(Wall Street Journal) David S. Cloud - Iran spent decades constructing underground bunkers to shield its vast missile arsenal from destruction. Less than a week into the war, the strategy is beginning to look like a blunder. U.S. and Israeli planes and armed drones are circling over the dozens of cavernous bases, striking missile-carrying launchers when they emerge to fire. Meanwhile, waves of heavy bombers have dropped munitions on the sites, entombing the Iranian weapons below ground in some locations. Satellite imagery taken in recent days shows the smoldering remains of several Iranian missiles and launchers destroyed in U.S. and Israeli airstrikes near entrances to the "missile cities." Analysts said it is likely that much of Tehran's remaining stockpile of missiles remains in underground bases whose locations are mostly known to the U.S. and Israel. That underscores a fundamental flaw in the missile-city concept: "What was once mobile and difficult to find is no longer mobile, and easier to hit," said Sam Lair, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Almost all of the dozens of missile bases are underground but have aboveground buildings, roads and entrances that make it possible to identify them from satellite photos. The Pentagon and Israel's military have spent years locating the facilities.