Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps announced Saturday that it has moved missile and drone production lines underground, claiming the capacity to sustain weapons manufacturing even under sustained bombardment. IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi unveiled plans for an "underground missile city" and asserted that adversaries had miscalculated Iran's remaining stockpiles — production continued while they assumed reserves were dwindling. The announcements form part of a broader deterrence signal. Mohebbi claimed advances in stealth technology had allowed Iranian missiles and drones to penetrate air defense systems during previous engagements with the United States and Israel, and emphasized that all IRGC Aerospace Force weapons are now domestically manufactured without reverse-engineering foreign materiel. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's earlier statement lifting geographical limits on Iranian missile range was reiterated as a warning. The claims arrive with independent corroboration of Iranian strike effectiveness. The Wall Street Journal reported billions of dollars in damage to US bases across the Middle East during previous rounds of fighting. Reuters separately found that Iran successfully targeted Gulf infrastructure on at least 135 occasions during the same period, causing billions in damage and lost revenues. These are not abstract threats — the track record establishes Iran's capacity to impose real economic costs. The wider context is the US-Israeli war on Iran launched February 28, which prompted Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz and triggered a global energy crisis. Mediation efforts have intensified, though the situation remains volatile. President Trump claimed Friday that limited strikes had hit Iran's Qeshm Island while asserting "a lot of progress" in talks. Tehran has repeatedly warned it will target Gulf energy infrastructure if fighting resumes — a threat that would push already-elevated energy prices higher still. Washington's pressure campaign now extends across multiple domains. The US has imposed additional sanctions straining Iran's economy, a naval blockade preventing Iranian oil exports, and CENTCOM announced Saturday a new task force to interdict Iranian land-based weapons transport routes. Iran has responded by adopting new trade routes, signaling adaptation rather than capitulation. The underground production announcement is strategically significant because it changes the cost calculus of airstrikes. If production is survivable, then bombing campaigns become attrition exercises rather than decisive actions. This shifts the military logic from destruction of capability to interdiction of supply chains — precisely the mission CENTCOM's new task force is designed for. The war is migrating from kinetic strikes to economic strangulation. The fundamental extraction runs in multiple directions simultaneously. Global energy consumers bear the cost of the Hormuz closure. Iranian civilians bear the cost of sanctions and blockade. Gulf states bear the cost of infrastructure attacks. US taxpayers fund the military operations. The only actors not bearing costs are the decision-makers on all sides who initiated and escalated the conflict. If this pattern continues for twenty years, the Middle East becomes a permanently militarized zone with energy supply permanently fragile and the global economy permanently taxed by geopolitical risk premiums.
