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Satellite Images Show Iran Is Rebuilding. Fast.
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this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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Iran has quickly rebuilt infrastructure damaged during the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign over recent months, from missile bases nestled deep inside mountains to bridges, ports and production facilities, according to Israeli and Western officials and a review of satellite imagery. The faster-than-expected progress worries some Israeli officials. It helps explain Iran’s continued resilience despite an air campaign that involved more than 20,000 strikes at the height of the war and that continues along Iran’s coast in an effort to break Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz. Near Kangavar, in western Iran, satellite imagery from Planet Labs in March showed two tunnel entrances and an access road damaged by airstrikes aimed at blocking access to an Iranian missile base. Within weeks, imagery from Airbus revealed a neatly paved road leading to freshly excavated entrances. In another case, an Israeli military official said Iran repaired a bridge that Israel had struck with three bombs within days, surprising Israeli officials and prompting them to question the effectiveness of their targeting. Planet Labs satellite images from the beginning of July also showed partial reconstruction efforts at a shipyard in the port of Bandar Anzali on the Caspian Sea that is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the paramilitary group tasked with defending the regime. Israel said it hit dozens of targets there in March, including warships, the port, a command center and a shipyard used to repair and maintain vessels, aiming at a Russia-Iran supply line and calling it one of its most significant attacks of the war. Ran Kochav, a former commander of Israel’s air and missile defense forces, said the rapid recovery is consistent with skills Iran demonstrated in rebuilding its infrastructure and missile stockpile after the 12-day Israel-Iran war last June, before the new war began in February. “They refilled their stockpiles,” he said. “They have very impressive industrialization and reconstruction capabilities.” Near Kangavar in western Iran, Planet Labs satellite images in March showed airstrikes had damaged tunnel entrances and an access road at a missile base. Weeks later, an Airbus image showed a paved road and freshly excavated entrances. Planet Labs, Airbus Iran faces an enormous, costly and time-consuming effort to dig out from under the damage caused by the U.S. and Israeli attacks. But the speedy work across the country cuts into claims by President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that their bombing campaign dealt a devastating blow. The leaders have come under domestic pressure for failing to dislodge Iran’s ruling regime, eliminate Tehran’s nuclear program or reopen the Strait of Hormuz. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the war succeeded in destroying Iran’s missile arsenal and production, sinking its navy, weakening its militia allies and ensuring it won’t possess a nuclear weapon. “This operation was a resounding victory by any objective measure,” she said. The U.S. Central Command, responsible for the Middle East, declined to comment. The office of Israel’s prime minister didn’t respond to a request for comment. Israel’s military declined to comment. Overnight in the region, the U.S. military wrapped up its 12th straight day of strikes hitting the same sorts of targets—missile and drone facilities, operation centers and military infrastructure—that it has been hitting for weeks. Its aim is to break Iran’s hold on the strait after the deal Trump signed in June to reopen it unraveled as Iran stepped up attacks on shipping. Despite the pounding, Iran has continued to land precise hits on ships and carry out missile attacks on U.S. regional allies, such as Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan, where an Iranian attack killed three U.S. soldiers over the weekend. “It turns out that the rumors about the end or the significant dwindling of the missiles were wrong,” said Tal Inbar, a senior analyst at the U.S.-based Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance. Satellite image of the Iranian missile base north of Kermanshah, showing areas of destruction. Planet Labs imagery shows Iran’s missile base north of Kermanshah took heavy blows at the beginning of the war. Planet Labs Iran’s leaders aren’t showing signs of relenting despite the continued attacks. The five-week U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign at the beginning of the war exceeded the pace of recent wars conducted by the U.S. and Israel in the Middle East. It took aim at everything from underground missile cities to steel and aluminum factories. By its end, both Trump and Netanyahu portrayed the campaign as a major setback for Iran. “Iran’s military is a complete and total mess,” Trump posted on social media last month. “Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore—They have been completely defeated.” Netanyahu said Iran’s military capabilities and nuclear and ballistic programs had been set back by many years. “We smashed Iran’s missile production machine,” he said in April. “The Iranians are firing what is left in their arsenal, and the arsenal is emptying out. But they are not producing new missiles.” Israeli military officials have privately voiced frustration with the results of the bombing campaign, pointing to the active rebuilding. One official familiar with the targeting effort thought Israel could have done more damage if it had stayed focused on military sites rather than shifting early in the war to target Iran’s internal security services and even individual checkpoints staffed by the Basij militia in hopes of undermining the regime. “Iran is rebuilding everything,” the official said. “I am very worried.” A second Israeli military official said that Iran was capable of rebuilding almost everything, including missile production, as it still has the know-how. Israel and the U.S. often only succeeded in collapsing entry points to missile bases deep inside mountains rather than destroying them fully, Israeli military officials said. Weapons stored inside these collapsed sites were left intact, and Iran has since been digging them out, they said. A missile base in the southwestern Iranian city of Dezful was struck by Israel in June 2025 and again in early March, when airstrikes buried its entrances, satellite images from Planet Labs show. Three months later, images from Airbus showed that Iran was already digging out multiple tunnel entrances at the site. Two young Iranian boys playing with a naval torpedo beneath Iran-made missiles at a war museum. A war museum in Tehran. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images Another Iranian missile base north of the city of Kermanshah took heavy blows at the beginning of the war, Planet Labs imagery shows. By the first week of June, images distributed by Airbus showed crews had repaired road damage, and trucks visible on satellite images were clearing dirt and reopening collapsed tunnel entrances. Satellite images from Planet Labs also show partial reconstruction in recent weeks near Tehran at Raja Shimi Industries, a plant believed to be involved in the production of missile components, according to a King’s College London report. The images show several new structures that appear to have been rebuilt. Some facilities that make more advanced components needed for manufacturing missiles, such as carbon fiber, might take Iran months if not years to re-establish following Israeli and American strikes, said Jim Lamson, a visiting research fellow at King’s College London and former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who wrote the report. But Iran may have stockpiled those components at underground production facilities that can be used to assemble dozens or hundreds of new missiles and drones in the short term, Lamson said. Israel’s intelligence services believe Iran may have transferred thousands of centrifuges into tunnels inside Pickaxe Mountain, a development that would heighten concerns that it could reconstitute its nuclear program. Iran has demonstrated that it will keep pushing to rebuild its infrastructure and weapons capability however long it takes. “It is a matter of will, time and money,” Inbar said.