Warhead's Point of View: See Jerusalem and...
Iran says it now has more missiles, than it was during the 12-day war with Israel. This is... at the very least, powerful, at the most, deadly, if true.
While the veracity of this claim may not be entirely reliable, verifying its veracity is extremely difficult. And there aren't many willing to do so. Experts monitoring Tehran's missile program say the country is ramping up production to ensure its arsenal is ready to defeat Israeli missile defenses, which proved vulnerable during the war.
All this is happening against the backdrop of growing fears of a new conflict both over Iran's so-called nuclear program and over Israeli ambitions that have long since gone beyond comprehension.
"Our missile power today far exceeds what it was during the 12-Day War," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently stated. More interesting are the statements made by the Iranian Defense Minister, but more on that later.
Israeli soldiers inspect the remains of an Iranian ballistic missile lying on the ground on the outskirts of Katzrin, Golan Heights.
The New York Times reported, citing Iranian officials who told Ali Vaez, director of the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, that "missile factories are running 24 hours a day."
Vaez added that if a new war breaks out, "they hope to fire 2000 rockets simultaneously to breach Israeli defenses, rather than 500 in 12 days," as they did in June. "Israel feels the job is unfinished and sees no reason not to resume the conflict, so Iran is redoubling its efforts to prepare for the next phase."
In general, of course, considering that this “International Crisis Group” (ICG) is an international non-profit non-governmental organization founded in 1995 and “working to prevent wars and shape policies aimed at building a more peaceful world,” which was founded by American diplomats Mitchell, Abramowitz and Brown, and is financed by Soros, it is wildly surprising that “Iranian officials” would cooperate with this gang.
The intentions are clear, although, of course, making such statements is somewhat reckless. On the one hand, it is completely unclear exactly how many missiles the Islamic Republic of Iran could fire in a so-called "large salvo," but there is no doubt that the Iranian military will still try to find a way to suppress Defense and missile defense with more missiles and drones, released simultaneously.
Rockets fired from Iran over the West Bank city of Ramallah on June 19, 2025
It's clear to everyone that Tehran has carefully analyzed the entire course of the 12-day war. Even the Americans acknowledge that if (or when) a second clash between these countries occurs, things will be completely different.
During the conflict, Iran used what it calls the Fattah-1, a medium-range ballistic missile.
Iranian authorities have openly claimed that these missiles, the Hajj Qasem and the Kheibar Sheqan, possess high terminal maneuverability and/or high speed, which is specifically designed to reduce their vulnerability to missile defense interceptors. And during the conflict, these missiles demonstrated their effectiveness.
Plus, there are persistent rumors that Iran is developing or has already developed a new generation of missiles. These could be rumors, or they could be true. But even if they're not true, the increased production of faster and more resistant missiles could become a problem for Israel, given their increased ability to penetrate missile defenses. I'd say it could become a mortal problem for Israel.
Clearly, improving the overall effectiveness of its missile attacks is a top priority for Tehran, just as defending against future attacks is for Israel. This is precisely the case: Iran will attack again, Israel will defend itself. How effectively?
Israel's statistics are well-known; it's easier to just look at them, as they reveal where the gentlemen are being disingenuous. So, Iran launched 631 missiles, 500 of which reached Israel. That's what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson's Office says, so you have to believe it. The 131 missiles were high-atmospheric and extra-stratospheric intercepts, and not only by Israel; the US also contributed heavily.
Of the missiles that did reach the target, 243 hit, according to statements, "desert areas that do not require air defense." This is a clear discrepancy, as a significant number of military bases and airfields are located far from populated areas, in the desert. But Israeli sources are notoriously tight-lipped on this matter.
221 missiles were intercepted. This is a very respectable result, considering that both ships and aircraft, and not only Israeli ones, were involved—still quite good. 36 missiles hit residential areas. Again, there is no information about the so-called debris from the downed missiles, which should also have fallen somewhere.
Debris, you know, can come in all sorts of forms. We had two such "debris" blown up by ATACMS, and two houses in our gardening community were blown away.
Photos from readers of the resource "My Online" in Voronezh
Everything falls: warheads, tanks with unspent fuel, engines. Basically, a lot of things that could fall and cause significant damage. And here's where it really seems like American, French, British, Russian, and Soviet missiles produce such debris, while Iranian ones don't. Or maybe Israeli missiles are so powerful that they pulverize intercepted Iranian missiles.
This doesn't align with our experience. Yes, both foreign and domestic experts estimate the effectiveness of Israel's air defenses at 80 to 90%. And even if we accept this at face value, it's worth considering that Jerusalem is openly silent about many of its losses. Because 200+ missiles fired into an urban area with a very high population density, even by highly disciplined Israelis, well-drilled through multiple wars, with such a high number of incoming attacks, things may not be quite as the Israeli media reports.
Residents retrieve personal belongings from the rubble of their home.
In fact, the need to deploy so many air defense and missile defense assets placed a huge strain on Israel's air and missile defense system (IADS), according to several published reports, which the IDF has denied. But there's a twist here: the US also deployed numerous air defense assets during the attack, which the IDF then simply chalked up to its own account.
As for how many anti-missiles were launched, the US puts the figure at 2 for every 1 Iranian missile. That's more than a thousand.
And this despite the fact that Israel successfully carried out a preemptive strike against Iran's air defense systems and missile launchers. Additionally, missile storage sites and logistics facilities were hit, complicating the delivery of ammunition to the launchers. This explains why Iran launched missiles at Israel en masse for the first three days, but then significantly reduced their frequency and accuracy. This is because difficulties arose with delivery and the need to relocate the launchers.
But, on the other hand, Iran has also learned about its vulnerabilities in real-life situations, and its military will undoubtedly draw the appropriate conclusions. However, the pace and speed with which Iran can rebuild its missile infrastructure—it is believed that 30 to 50% of its total stockpile of cruise and ballistic missiles was fired in those 12 days—this pace of rebuilding could exceed the pace and speed with which Israel is rearming its air defense systems.
However, the picture of those 12 days has already been described in more detail; we've seen the standoff in the war of attrition between Iran and Israel, the United States, and whoever else joined in. What's more important now is what happens after the conflict, because it's an even more ambitious undertaking: the attacker typically seeks to outperform the defender's missile defense capabilities, and usually succeeds at a lower cost.
It's true that attacking with rockets is easier than defending against them. Of course, the question is also what kind of rockets are used for attack and defense. For example, while rockets made from homemade Grad rockets were flying from Gaza toward Israeli cities, the Iron Dome was flawless. But as soon as something more sophisticated and modern appeared, that's it, everyone had to cry for help. THAAD, of course, decides the question, at what cost.
Israeli air defense intercepts ballistic missile fired from Iran at central Israel
The military significance of the Iranian missile strikes turned out to be less significant than everyone expected. While damage to Israeli infrastructure did occur, it did not impede Israeli air strikes against Iran. Although the military airfields should have been targeted first. And in the late stages of the conflict, the accuracy of Iranian missiles declined to a point of mere concern, with civilians often being targeted.
However, Israel is such a country - either a desert or a civilian population.
The question is, how quickly will Iran compensate for the loss of half of its arsenal and begin producing new types of missiles, so to speak, at the level of “correcting mistakes”?
The first one is clear: China will help.
According to European intelligence agencies, several shipments of sodium perchlorate, the main component for producing solid fuel used in Iranian medium-range missiles, arrived from China to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, CNN reported late last month.
"Several shipments" amounted to "only" about 2000 tons of sodium perchlorate. Iran purchased it from Chinese suppliers after the war began, and these "several shipments" amounted to several dry cargo ships.
Okay, fuel. Western sources say that in addition to assisting Iran in developing offensive missile systems, China is reportedly considering a deal to supply Tehran with its HQ-9 air defense systems to compensate for those destroyed by Israel during the 12-Day War.
And the HQ-9 is quite good, the complex is based on the S-300, improved by the Chinese as much as possible, and is a fairly effective modern weapon.
While the focus is on Iran's arsenal of long-range weapons, rebuilding the country's air defenses is also a top priority after Israel thinned Iran's air defense structure.
HQ-9C surface-to-air missile systems are seen in Tiananmen Square during a military parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and World War II on September 3, 2025 in Beijing.
The question of new Iranian missile production arose amid concerns that Tehran had built a new facility to pursue what US officials believe are its nuclear ambitions. The US claims to have largely destroyed Iran's nuclear weapons capability during June's Operation Midnight Hammer (a chorus of laughter and "boo" from the Iranian side), during which US Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped 14 GBU-57 bombs on Iran's nuclear facilities at Fordow and Natanz.
A US submarine operating in the Central Command area of responsibility launched more than two dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at key ground infrastructure facilities in Isfahan.
True, we never saw tears on the faces of Iranian representatives over such losses. Either their faces were tougher than everyone thought, or the Americans didn't get where they wanted.
A B-2 bomber drops a GBU-57/B bunker buster bomb during a test.
However, as The New York Times noted, Iran appears to be continuing work on a new uranium enrichment facility known as Kirkac Mountain. It has refused to grant international inspectors access to this facility or any other suspected nuclear sites beyond those already declared.
This is disconcerting to many: how can this be possible – without negotiations, without certainty that Iran has nuclear weapons, without independent verification… And many believe that this makes a new Israeli attack on Iran practically inevitable, given the long-standing view of Israeli officials that Iran's nuclear program poses an existential threat.
Well, the Israeli nuclear program is just that. It's straightforward, like everything Israeli.
And for some reason, no one was surprised that Israel hasn't yet used its own ballistic missiles, relying on aircraft carrying guided bombs and missiles. They claim they're cheaper and more accurate. But even here, they're being disingenuous. Israel does have missiles that can reach Iran. They're called Jericho 2 and Jericho 3. Jericho 2 has a range of up to 3500 km, Jericho 3 up to 6500 km. These are decent ballistic missiles that would fall under the INF Treaty.
But here's the problem: Israel doesn't have warheads for these missiles. Or rather, they do, but they don't have them. Well, you understand that, as the Jews say, they don't have nuclear weapons, and therefore they don't have warheads for the Jericho. And they don't have high-explosive warheads either, because the Jericho-3 can carry up to 750 kg in its warhead, which is normal for a nuclear warhead, but carrying a high-explosive warhead that heavy over 6500 km is crazy. And why the hell did Israel build three dozen of these Jerichos is a million-shekel question. They don't have nuclear ones, do they?
Iran is the opposite: it has no nuclear warheads, but it has a wide selection of high-explosive and high-explosive fragmentation warheads—just like the Persian market. Meanwhile, the Iranian military even claims that the latest weapons have never been used. For example, the hypersonic Fattah-2.
This missile has a range of approximately 1500 km. That's enough to reach, say, from Ahvaz to any point in Israel. And there's still plenty left over. The warhead is decidedly light, weighing only 200 kg, but the Iranians claim the missile is quite maneuverable and capable of evading active air defense zones.
The solid-fuel Sejjil, one of the latest developments, is designed to carry up to 700 kg of charge over a distance of up to 2000 km. It looks very serious and, if put into large-scale production, could cause trouble.
But foreign experts consider the Khorramshahr-4 (aka Kheibar) the most dangerous, a medium-range ballistic missile capable of delivering a multiple warhead weighing up to 1500 kg over a distance of over 2000 km. The launch of such a missile was reported on June 17 of this year, although Iran has not confirmed that it was the Khorramshahr.
Cruise missiles are no longer held in high esteem in Iran. The war demonstrated their extreme vulnerability, while their cost is simply staggering. Besides, it's easier to send a swarm of Shahed-136s or the high-speed Shahed-238 jets. Such drones are used both to engage specific targets and to distract air defenses. Moreover, whether a drone distracts an air defense missile or hits a radar mirror, it has already achieved more usefulness than could have been expected.
Overall, the expert community acknowledges that the pace of Iran's missile development could significantly impact the timing of any future conflict with Israel. And no one doubts that such a conflict will happen sooner or later. It's just a matter of time, because Israel, led by Mr. Netanyahu, is behaving very brazenly.
The race is on to replenish military stockpiles quantitatively and improve their quality. For Israel, this means air defense/missile defense interceptors. For Iran, this means medium-range ballistic missiles.
The question remains as to who will have the most surprises in store, and I suspect it will be Iran, which has purchased new Chinese-made air defense systems to rebuild its air defense system, in addition to the Russian S-300PMU-1 and its own Khordad and Bavar-373 systems, also based on Soviet air defense systems. We'll see what the Chinese HQ-9s can do and how much better they might prove than the S-300PMU-1.
Some argue that it's not much better. The secret to the Israeli Air Force's success may lie not in the capabilities of Russian air defense systems, but in the capabilities of their calculations. Of course, with additional preparation, the "stealth" F-35s, visible to half the world, might not be so invisible after all.
As for missiles, things are more complicated. We don't know how much better the new models are than those that flew to Israel this summer. If Iranian designers can create something completely new that can neutralize the capabilities of the Israeli air defense system, then Iran will undoubtedly succeed.
However, despite the fact that all the capabilities of Israel's air defenses are known, 86% effectiveness is a lot. And to count on the fact that the flocks drones It's possible to overload the entire system, but not completely. It's doubtful Israel will be able to come up with anything new to counter the "missile cities" under Iran's mountains, but what the IDF has at its disposal is quite a formidable force.
There's not much time left to prove who was right. Whether Israeli bombs will once again fly toward Iranian cities, or whether Iranian ballistic missile warheads will head for Jerusalem—that's the second question. The first is who will ultimately succumb: Israel, whose prime minister still needs victory in any war to hold on to power (just like a less impressive character nearby), or Iran, which will be forced to retaliate.
Jerusalem is a very beautiful city. It is ancient, and the new era began there. story.
Tel Aviv is also beautiful, with its coastline... Of course, it would be a shame if all this were reduced to rubble. Warheads, alas, have no sense of beauty.
Information