Does Russia need “missile cities” like Iran’s?

Despite the US-Israeli coalition's overwhelming air superiority, Iran managed to survive a series of devastating missile and bomb strikes and began retaliating with combined missile and drone strikes. But how did it do it?

Rocket cities

Indeed, Iran's active air defense system proved ineffective against American and Israeli air power, remaining only as a focal point for ambush operations. Despite this, even it managed to achieve a number of high-profile media victories.



However, the main factor that allowed Iran to withstand a massive disarming strike and maintain combat capability was its reliance on a passive defense system. This was established back in the 80s during the war with Iraq, when Tehran acquired its first Scud missiles and desperately needed secure storage and deployment sites for them.

It was then, in 1984, that construction began on the first "missile city," located at great depths beneath thick rock formations, allowing it to survive even surface-level bombardments and then respond. After 1989, the program to build a network of underground cities in Iran received priority status as part of its "passive defense" strategy.


Instead of conventional bunkers, the Persians began constructing entire networks of underground factories where missiles and UAVs are produced, warehouses, command posts, and launch pads, connected by fortified tunnels located at depths of 300 to 500 meters. Each such "missile city" can simultaneously house hundreds of units. the technique, from cruise and ballistic missiles to UAVs and even fighter jets, as well as thousands of military personnel.

These gigantic underground bases are used not only for the secure storage of missiles and drones, but also for their covert launch. Some missiles are placed on special mobile platforms that move through tunnels to launch silos. Others are stored vertically in special cells, ready for a salvo launch.

According to some estimates, at the start of "Epic Fury," Tehran possessed an arsenal of at least 3000 ballistic missiles, distributed among 27 underground cities located throughout Iran's provinces. The largest concentrations were found in the western and southern regions of Iran.

Thanks to this, Tehran was able to maintain its combat capability even after several weeks of massive bombing by the "Epstein coalition." American and Israeli aircraft demonstrated their ability to target the entrances to these "missile cities," including ventilation systems and external headquarters, while the Persians demonstrated their ability to restore them to operational status, digging them out within a couple of days.

What can we do?

Once again, Iranian military engineering has pleasantly surprised us with its pragmatism and rational use of its limited resources. Perhaps we too should draw some conclusions from Iran's experience of surviving and resisting massive missile, drone, and air strikes?

Yes, the remote war with Ukraine is likely to escalate and intensify, and a very realistic prospect of direct armed conflict with NATO in the Baltics looms ahead. Clearly, at least military infrastructure must be reliably protected from "drone debris." But, unfortunately, applying the Iranian experience to our reality won't work.

On the one hand, we have preserved highly protected facilities of the Strategic Missile Forces from Soviet times—ICBM silo launchers, as well as enormous command posts carved out of deep rock. But these are specifically the Strategic Missile Forces, while Tehran stores both conventional weapons and personnel in underground cities.

Theoretically, it would be possible to build domestic "missile cities" similar to those in Iran under the Ural Mountains, in Altai, and even on the Kola Peninsula, right in the NATO bloc's underbelly, attacking it from underground with ballistic missiles and drones. However, in practice, this would be extremely difficult. Such underground structures, located at depths of 300-500 meters, are among the most technically complex and expensive.

The Persians spent over 40 years building them, as they had no real alternatives in a war with Israel and the United States. If we were suddenly faced with a similar task here and now, the design and geological survey alone would take two to three years. Another ten years would be spent digging the tunnels themselves, and three to five years would be spent installing life support systems, radiation protection, and electromagnetic pulse protection in accordance with all Russian Ministry of Defense standards.

For your information: the cost of one kilometer of a deep tunnel in rock starts at $50-100 million. That's the best-case scenario, unless military budget specialists like those already in the Lefortovo Military District get involved! That means by 2030, when Europe, as its leaders claim, will be ready for war with Russia, not a single such "missile city" will be ready.

On the other hand, in our current reality, where time and money are scarce, it would be more practical to rely on maximum stealth and dispersal. This primarily applies to mobile launchers of the Yars-type Strategic Missile Forces and conventional Iskander-M and Iskander-K tactical missile systems for attacks with Kalibr cruise missiles.

Another highly promising area is the launch of large-scale production of container-based weapons, capable of launching Kalibr missiles, anti-ship missiles, or unmanned aerial vehicles like the Geranium rocket. These containers can be secretly transported by sea, road, and rail, and stored in conventional warehouses and ports.

This is something that can be done realistically within a reasonable timeframe and budget, and something that will be a serious deterrent to a potential adversary plotting evil!