Iran said producing up to 50 ballistic missiles a month, as IRGC unveils underground ‘missile city’

Iran is producing 50 ballistic missiles a month, about half its prewar capacity, according to Western intelligence estimates reported on Wednesday.

An unnamed Western official who spoke to Bloomberg cited intelligence reports that found that though Iran’s conventional military was mostly destroyed by the joint US-Israel air campaign launched in February, it likely has at least 1,700 ballistic missiles left and is making more.

According to the report, despite accounts that the war left the US with a weapons shortage, it still has large stockpiles of precision-guided bombs and cruise missiles, but drawing on those supplies has depleted stores in other regions.

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It said Iranian missile launches at US forces and allies in the Middle East used up at least 1,000 Patriot interceptors. About 650 of those missiles, costing $4 million each, are produced each year.

Bloomberg estimated that Iran fired over 4,900 Shahed drones and at least 2,200 ballistic missiles since the war started on February 28 with joint US-Israel attacks.

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Israel launched its campaign against Iran, alongside the US, to degrade the Iranian regime’s military capabilities, reduce threats posed by Iran — including its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and “create the conditions” for the Iranian people to topple the regime, the military and Israeli leaders have said.

Iran has been able to keep striking US military bases in the Middle East and has disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz during the course of the more than eight-month-old conflict, driving up global oil prices. US President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that the Iran war “militarily is effectively over” and repeated his often-made claim that Iran “would love to make a deal.”

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who lost his parliamentary majority in the October 27 election, is reportedly still keen for the US and Israel to strike Iran.

Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei said in televised remarks Wednesday that Iran will not allow even a single particle of enriched nuclear material to leave the country and warned of consequences in the event of any new US strikes on the Islamic Republic.

Rezaei was speaking to Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Al Mayadeen TV after US officials downplayed the need for additional military action against Iran, with analysts noting Trump’s more conciliatory tone since the Republicans’ defeat in the November 3 midterm elections.

Rezaei has said there are currently no negotiations taking place between Tehran and Washington.

“Any new US attacks will also be met with targeting US bases far away,” he said.

The IAEA estimates that Iran had 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent — a level far higher than needed for civilian use — when Israel and the US attacked Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. How much of that ⁠has survived is ​unclear.

Iran also hit out at the $20 million reward offered by Washington for information on Tehran’s nuclear program, calling it “repugnant and regrettable.”

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged the United Nations’ atomic energy agency and the Security Council to condemn the reward, which was announced Friday.

The US military said up to $20 million and “possible relocation” were available for information about the program’s “facilities, equipment, and associated personnel.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran calls upon the UN Secretary-General, the Security Council, and the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency to condemn this repugnant announcement explicitly and unequivocally,” Araghchi wrote in a letter addressed to all three.

He repeated Iran’s insistence that its nuclear program is peaceful.

Trump has repeatedly said Iran’s nuclear program was effectively obliterated by the brief US strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June 2025.

Since that war, Iran has blocked IAEA inspectors from visiting bombed facilities at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

During the more recent war’s most intense phase, US-Israeli strikes hit Iranian nuclear sites again but the scale of the damage remains unclear.

Diplomatic efforts, led by Qatar and Pakistan, have been underway to negotiate an end to the war.

Tehran has insisted Washington accepts a raft of demands, including unfreezing assets and lifting sanctions in return for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the vital energy shipping conduit it has blockaded since the start of the conflict.

Araghchi previously said that talks over Iran’s nuclear program would come at a later stage.

Iran’s nuclear program has been at the center of tensions for years. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, the US withdrew from an agreement struck under Barack Obama that aimed to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons in return for sanctions relief.

Washington has said nuclear issues must be an initial part of any negotiations with Iran aimed at ending the war between the two countries.

Iran has sent the United States a nuclear proposal via Qatar, to be discussed only after Washington meets seven demands presented by Tehran, a senior Iranian official told Reuters last week.

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