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Satellite images indicate Iran is working swiftly to repair more than a dozen ballistic missile facilities damaged in US and Israeli strikes last year — with the Islamic Republic apparently prioritizing its missile arsenal over destroyed major nuclear sites.
Various degrees of construction work have already been underway at more than half of the two dozen missile sites that were hit during the 12-day war with Israel, according to experts and a New York Times analysis of the imagery.
Minimal work appears to have been carried out, though, at the three major nuclear plants President Trump said had been “obliterated” during the brief conflict last June.
Experts said the repair timeline was a sign Iran was prioritizing bolstering its missile stockpile — just as fears mounted among the Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership that Trump may follow through with threats to strike the region.
“The emphasis that’s been put on rebuilding the missile program stands in contrast to the nuclear program,” Sam Lair, a research associate at California’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said.
The satellite images suggest some repair works were made in the immediate aftermath of the strikes — and have only ramped up in recent months.
The Shahroud Space Center — an Iranian missile test facility — appeared to up and running again just a few months after the strikes unfolded, according to the images.
“Shahroud is their largest and newest solid-propellant missile production plant,” Lair said, noting that roads leading to the plant were quickly cleared when snow fell last month, and ice rapidly melted off the roof.
“So it makes sense that it got all of the attention.”
In comparison, Iran’s three main nuclear enrichment facilities — Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordo — appeared to still largely be out of commission.
In recent weeks, satellite imagery has picked up that roofs had been erected over two damaged buildings at the Natanz and Isfahan facilities but that the majority of the structural damage inflicted on the plants was still clearly visible.
Much of the efforts to date appear to have been focused on clearing debris and stabilizing the area.
“We haven’t seen any intensive recovery efforts to try to get equipment out of these facilities,” Joseph Rodgers, a fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told the outlet.
Experts have previously said the recent movement at the nuclear sites was an indication that Tehran was trying to obscure the International Atomic Energy Agency’s ability to monitor the sites as opposed to rebuilding its nuclear capacity.
Still, the full scale of repairs at both the nuclear and missile sites couldn’t be fully verified, given that the images only show aboveground construction.
Tehran, too, has so far refused to allow IAEA inspectors to visit the nuclear facilities since the crippling attacks by the US and Israel — meaning the satellite images are the only way of monitoring them.
English (US)