by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Iran's secret underground facilities have been dazzling the world for decades. The secrecy carefully kept around the deadly contents of these dungeons only fueled interest. And then suddenly Iran lifted the veil.
The one-and-a-half-minute video, in which the Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri and the Commander of the Aerospace Forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Amir-Ali Hajizadeh travel through the “underground city” and inspect the advanced “arsenal of retaliation,” was promptly distributed by all Iranian media.
It also served as an open message to the opponents who are issuing ultimatums and threatening devastating blows to Iranian territory.
Official Tehran emphasizes that it does not mind “showing off” some secret facilities and what is stored there, since they are only the tip of the iceberg.
"ROCKET CITIES"
Although speculation about Iran having a large number of underground military facilities has been circulating in the press since the early 2000s, Tehran has not confirmed them for a long time.
The first controlled leaks of information were sanctioned by the government only in 2015 to debunk numerous myths surrounding the Iranian military program, and most importantly to show that such facilities are not used as nuclear arsenals.
True, the fragmentary information that made it into the press did not give researchers a complete picture of the functionality of these bases and further fueled the imagination of Tehran’s opponents.
| Was there any mention of them — and complete architectural plans — in that warehouse archive Mossad completely emptied and carried off to Israel? Unlike us here at Rantburg, Mossad does not rely on open sources for their information. |
In 2016, they were used to scare Saudi Arabia and other Arabian monarchies, and since 2020, the United States and Israel.
| Maybe the Magic Kingdom was scared, but I suspect we and Israel are more annoyed than anything else. |
This scare tactic was especially effective given that until recently Iran’s opponents only had reliable information about three such facilities: Khorramabad (the largest missile base in the country), Kenesht-Kanyon, and Panj-Pelleh.
| Are you sure about that, Mr. Tsukanov? |
Recently, Iranian generals have been actively confirming these guesses.
Thus, by January 2025, the IRGC had publicized information about at least two more such facilities in the central part of the country and in one of the coastal provinces. And in February, IRGC Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami ceremoniously opened a new underground base in the south in the presence of journalists.
Introducing the facility, the commander-in-chief did not fail to hint that Iran already has “hundreds of underground cities” and even the most sophisticated enemy knows about only a small part of them.
In the context of constant threats to strike Iranian territory from Washington and Tel Aviv, Salami's statement sounded sobering.
STRATEGIC RESERVE
Despite the fact that the underground city shown by the Iranian command is not the first of its kind, it is unique in its own way.
First of all, the press was able to see not only the “entrance hall” of the complex and some galleries, but also study in detail – right down to the serial numbers of some strike units – the rich “arsenal of retaliation.”
Among the weapons demonstrated to the general public by Generals Bagheri and Hajizadeh were dozens of medium-range ballistic missiles (Kheibar Shekan, Sajil, Qadr-110) and cruise missiles (Shahid Abu Mahdi, Paveh).
Most of these weapons have already been used by Iran in strikes on Israeli territory and have proven to be very effective.
Given the high level of development of Iran's missile industry, the tour of the base only highlighted a small part of the range of the latest weapons.
At the very least, the promising cruise missiles Hoveyzeh and Sumar, which were launched into production several years ago, as well as the Jihad ballistic missile, which Tehran first presented at a parade in September 2024, remained in the shadows.
The IRGC command is increasingly fanning the flames of interest in the topic, stating that there is “nowhere to put” the stamped missiles of all types and kinds, and promising that underground missile storage facilities will be opened every week for the next two years.
In other words, we are talking about at least another hundred buried objects that Tehran is ready to talk about publicly.
ARSENALS ON DISPLAY
Despite the fact that Iran's new underground city looks very impressive, some Western military experts have assessed the IRGC's bravado with skepticism. Others have even called the complex a "white elephant" of the Iranian military system.
The main thing that caught the eye of Iran's opponents was the lack of any division of the base into sections. In fact, the complex shown is one long tunnel filled with missiles and launchers.
The lack of blast-proof doors makes the impression worse - the minimal barriers between the racks are visible only in a few places, and they are clearly not designed to contain a blast wave.
In addition, a significant portion of the missiles are stored without transport containers, which further increases the risk of chain detonation and destruction of the entire complex.
Although, given the propaganda nature of the video, most of the missiles were, with a high degree of probability, placed in a simulated combat position in advance, so that the arsenals would look more menacing.
Israeli military experts, who are closely monitoring the discovery of underground cities, respond with bravado and recall that they already had experience in destroying similar impregnable objects.
In particular, in September 2024, the IDF destroyed an underground Hezbollah missile factory in northwestern Syria, and a few days later, like a house of cards, demolished the underground bunker of the same movement’s leadership in Lebanon.
| Yep. Very dramatic it was, too. |
However, they are being a bit disingenuous here.
In both Syria and Lebanon, the successful destruction of underground facilities was preceded by a lengthy ground operation, which included (as in the case of Syria) the planting of explosives directly inside the complex.
The Hezbollah leader's bunker was destroyed because the Lebanese air defense system was not working: only because of this did dozens of concrete-piercing bombs reach their target.
| Uh huh. Sure. |
| I seem to recall the IAF spending a night destroying Iran’s entire anti-aircraft set-up last year, but it’s possible Iran completely replaced it while we weren’t looking… |
| … for a given definition of unknown which means Mossad might well know all about it because they were the ones who built it, just like they staffed the IRGC’s dedicated in-house Mossad-hunting team… |
This way of posing the question makes the operation impractical even in the eyes of the most ardent Israeli “hawks”.
| Impractical? Whatever you say, dude. |
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