Going Underground and Underwater in Warfare

A post-mortem view of the 2026 Iran-U.S.-Israel conflict argues that one major lesson emerged underground: Iran’s missile infrastructure and command-and-control sites built deep inside mountainous terrain survived weeks of intensive airstrikes by the U.S. and Israel. The strikes caused significant damage to missile bases, production facilities, tunnel entrances, boat shelters, and launcher infrastructure, but assessments say it was impossible to fully destroy Iran’s relocated missile and armed unmanned aerial vehicle capabilities. Some tunnel entrances were reopened and facilities resumed later, allowing continued missile launches, fast-attack craft operations, and armed UAV attacks. The article links this resilience to decades of underground construction since the 1980s and warns that improved sensing—from satellites and SAR to drones and AI-assisted imagery—makes concealment in air and on the surface harder.