President Donald Trump says it’s ‘unfair’ for Iran to lack ballistic missiles if other regional countries have them. Trump is at the G7 in France where the US-Iran deal has taken centre stage.
Published On 17 Jun 202617 Jun 2026
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The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
Iran has launched a new barrage of missiles at Israel, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. Iranian officials say the attack, the first such strike since the April 8 ceasefire, was in response to Israel bombing Beirut a few hours ago. With Israel under direct attack from Iran, how much longer the ceasefire will hold is an open question.
“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel,” the IDF stated on Telegram. “Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat.”
🚨 Sirens were sounded in several areas across the country following the identification of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel. https://t.co/BtjlfxOegW
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 7, 2026
Iran acknowledged launching missiles at Israel.
🚨BREAKING
Iran launched additional missiles toward Israel.— IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) (@iribnews_irib) June 7, 2026
Videos emerged on social media showing Israeli air defenses working to intercept the missiles.
A third round of sirens sound in northern Israel, after the IDF intercepted several Iranian ballistic missiles. No initial reports of injuries or damages.
A senior Israeli official tells Israeli media: “There will be a forceful response.” pic.twitter.com/BixzsXOrhs
— Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران (@ariel_oseran) June 7, 2026
Additional video purported to show the Iranian missile launches.
Visuals of Iranian Ballistic Missiles fired towards of State of Israel which were later intercepted and neutralised. pic.twitter.com/Xnfaiy1XZD
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) June 7, 2026
Earlier on Sunday, Israel attacked what it said was a Hezbollah command center in the Dahieh section of Beirut. Israel claimed it was in response to Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.
⭕STRUCK: A Hezbollah command center in the Dahieh area, following Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on northern Israeli communities.
The targeted command center was used by Hezbollah terrorists to advance terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers operating in southern…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 7, 2026
There were no initial reports of injuries or damage. The IDF claims that all the missiles were intercepted.
Regardless, Israel will almost certainly launch a retaliatory strike. Israel is considering the Iranian attack a “declaration of war.”
Iran launched many ballistic missiles attacks on Israel after Washington and Jerusalem launched strikes across Iran starting on Feb. 28.
BREAKING: In what appears to be a declaration of war by Iran against Israel, a third wave of missile alerts has been activated across Israel within minutes
— גיא עזריאל Guy Azriel (@GuyAz) June 7, 2026
UPDATE: 4:34 PM EDT –
President Donald Trump spoke with several media outlets in the wake of the Iranian attack. He is urging restraint between the Israel and Iran.
He told Fox News that the attack wasn’t helping negotiations and said he would suggest to Iran that “you shot your missiles, that’s enough, get back to the table and make a deal.”
On Israel striking Beirut earlier today: “I’m not happy about it,” President Trump said.
As I was speaking with President Trump, I could see incoming Iranian missiles out the window soaring toward northern Israel.
“It’s certainly not going to help negotiations,” President Trump told Fox News.
“What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles, that’s enough,… pic.twitter.com/QhIen8y08a
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) June 7, 2026
The president told Axios reporter Barak Ravid that he was going to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and tell him to hold his fire.
“I’m about to call Bibi right now and tell him not to respond,” Trump told the outlet. “Both of them have already done their part. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one.”
“The Iranian missile fire didn’t hit anyone. I hope Israel doesn’t respond. If Bibi attacks them back, it’ll just drag on like it has for the past 47 years, or the past 3,000 years,” Trump told Ravid. “We’re very close to a final deal with Iran. It’ll be a good deal. I don’t want it to blow up because of what’s happening now.”
🚨🚨ציטוטים נוספים משיחת הטלפון שלי עם הנשיא טראמפ: “ירי הטילים האיראני לא פגע באף אחד. אני מקווה שישראל לא תגיב. אם ביבי יתקוף אותם בחזרה, זה פשוט יימשך כמו ב־47 השנים האחרונות, או ב־3,000 השנים האחרונות.”
🚨🚨טראמפ הוסיף:”אנחנו מאוד קרובים להסכם סופי עם איראן. זה יהיה הסכם טוב.… https://t.co/g7pshIL497— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) June 7, 2026
Trump told Israel’s Channel 13 News that he thinks “Israel has responded enough, no need for more. We can achieve peace after 3,000 years.”
Trump to Channel 13 News:
”I think Israel has responded enough, no need for more. We can achieve peace after 3,000 years.”— Farzad Seifikaran (@FSeifikaran) June 7, 2026
Iran has issued a notice that it has closed airspace.
The IDF said Iran made “a grave mistake” by attacking, said its operations against Hezbollah will continue and warned Israelis that more attacks could be launched.
Iranian media released an image it claims shows a message inscribed on the missiles fired at Israel.
The text that was written on the Iranian missiles fired at Israel tonight. https://t.co/rIQ7jaH5E8
— IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) (@iribnews_irib) June 7, 2026
UPDATE: 6:51 PM EDT –
Iran fired 11 missiles at Israel, according to Israel’s C14 News outlet.
הירי מאיראן: סה”כ כ-11 שיגורים מאיראן לצפון, חלקם יורטו; אין נפגעים
— C14 (@C14_news) June 7, 2026
Trump told Financial Times that Netanyahu will have no choice but to accept any deal the US negotiates with Iran, because he “calls the shots.”
“He won’t have any choice,” Trump told the outlet in a telephone interview. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”
Trump added that Iran’s strikes had not changed his desire to conclude US-Iran negotiations. “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” he told the FT.
“We’ll see how it ends up,” Trump continued. “But they [the missile strikes on Israel] were attacks that did not kick at all. It’s one of those things that’s been going for 3,000 years, or 47 years, depending on how you count.”
BREAKING: President Trump says Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will have “no choice” but to accept a US deal with Iran, because he “calls the shots,” per FT.
Details include:
1. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots,” Trump said
2.…
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) June 7, 2026
UPDATE: 9:50 PM EDT-
As we suggested would likely happen, Israel has retaliated against Iran.
“A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran,” the IDF stated on Telegram.
UPDATE: 9:56 PM EDT –
Iranian media reported that “explosion sounds were heard in areas of Tehran, Isfahan, and Tabriz.”
Video and images have emerged on social media claiming to show the aftermath of the Israeli attacks.
UPDATE: 10:58 PM EDT –
In a post on X, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) says it has “identified the launch of a missile from Yemen toward Israeli territory, aerial defense systems are operating to intercept the threat.”
“The public is requested to follow the Home Front Command’s defensive guidelines,” the IAF added.
צה״ל זיהה כי שוגר טיל מכיוון תימן לשטח ישראל, מערכות ההגנה פועלות ליירט את האיום.
יש לפעול לפי הנחיות פיקוד העורף.— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) June 8, 2026
This is a developing story.
Contact the author: howard@twz.com
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The U.S. Marine Corps is exploring the possibility of fielding a theater ballistic missile defense capability. A key driver in this discussion is the U.S. Army’s capacity to provide protection against ballistic threats in future conflicts, or lack thereof, something TWZ has highlighted repeatedly in the past. The latest conflict with Iran has underscored the serious threats that ballistic missiles pose even to high-end integrated air and missile defense networks, which would be magnified further in a fight against a near-peer adversary like China.
“We’re exploring theater ballistic missile defense. So we’re doing some studies, we’re running some simulations, to see if that’s a requirement for the service in the future,” Marine Lt. Col. Robert Barclay said during a panel discussion yesterday at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition, at which TWZ has been in attendance.
Barclay is currently the Marine Air Command and Control Systems (MACCS) Integration Branch Head within the Aviation Combat Element Division of the service’s Combat Development and Integration office. His portfolio includes service-wide air and missile defense requirements.
“We know our old sensor used to be able to do it, but it wasn’t really a requirement,” Barclay added. “What we need to determine is, is [defending against] a theater ballistic [missile] like an SRBM [short-range ballistic missile] or MRBM [medium-range ballistic missile], a requirement for the Marine Corps to do? I would argue that it probably is.”
“At the end of the day, I don’t think the Army’s going to have enough capacity with us where we’re operating to actually adjudicate on that threat,” he continued. “So, I think we need to take a hard look at that, and that’s what our intent [is] to do over the next year.”
To take a step back quickly, the Marine Corps’ main general-purpose ground-based anti-air weapon today is the Stinger short-range heat-seeking surface-to-air missile. The service currently fields Stinger in a man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) configuration using shoulder-fired launchers, as well as integrated on the Humvee-based Avenger air defense vehicles. Stinger offers a point defense capability against fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, drones, and certain types of cruise missiles.
The Marines also hope to reach initial operational capability this year with a new Medium-Range Intercept Capability (MRIC), which is a service-specific variation of the Israeli Iron Dome system. MRIC uses a U.S.-made version of Iron Dome’s Tamir interceptor, called SkyHunter, and a trailer-based road-mobile launcher. Each launcher can accommodate up to 20 interceptors, which come preloaded in individual canisters, at a time. The system uses offboard sensors to spot and track targets and cue missiles to intercept them. The Corps’ existing AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radars (G/ATOR) have been presented as the primary sensor for MRIC.
“The primary target set for MRIC is cruise missiles and your higher-end Group 5-type of [anti-]air application, as well as rotary wing, fixed-wing type of aspects,” Marine Col. Andrew Konicki, the service’s Program Manager for Ground Based Air Defense and another panelist at Modern Day Marine yesterday, explained. MRIC “can go after Group 3, because it’s probably a mismatch in terms of ammunition versus what it’s going after. So it’s primarily focused on that growing threat, or that higher-end threat, so to speak, as part of that integrated air missile defense application and layer defense piece.”
Groups 3 and 5 here refer to different categories of uncrewed aerial systems. The U.S. military defines Group 5 as consisting of drones with maximum weights greater than 1,320 pounds, and that can fly above 18,000 feet. The MQ-9 Reaper is a commonly used example of a Group 5 uncrewed aircraft. Drones that fall under Group 3 have maximum weights anywhere between 56 and 1,320 pounds, can operate at altitudes between 3,500 and 18,000 feet, and reach top speeds of up to 250 knots. Group 3 is very broad, but notably includes Iran’s now-infamous Shahed 136 long-range kamikaze drone, and the growing number of variants and derivatives thereof.
Lt. Col. Robert Barclay’s mention of an unspecified previous Marine ballistic missile defense capability seems most likely to be a reference to the HAWK medium-range surface-to-air missile system. The service retired HAWK in the 1990s, but versions of the system remain in use elsewhere worldwide, including in Ukraine. HAWK has used an evolving mixture of radars for target acquisition and engagement since the system was first introduced in the 1950s, as you can read more about here. Improved HAWK interceptors have also been developed, including variants explicitly intended to offer a rudimentary anti-ballistic missile capability.
The video below shows HAWK systems in service in Ukraine.
Американський ЗРК HAWK (Яструб) захищає небо України!
Barclay did not elaborate on what level of ballistic missile defense capability the Marine Corps might look to pursue in the future. In the past year or so, there have been reports of Israel using Iron Dome against incoming Iranian ballistic missiles in the terminal phase. However, the system’s effectiveness against ballistic missiles of any kind, which it was never designed to intercept, and whether the Marines might be able to employ MRIC in this role, is unclear.
Today, the main tool for providing ground-based theater ballistic missile defense across all of America’s armed forces is the Army’s Patriot surface-to-air missile systems. The Army also operates the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, which offers a higher-end ballistic missile defense capability over Patriot. Both Patriot and THAAD are only capable of intercepting incoming ballistic threats during their final terminal phase.
The PATRIOT Missile in Action
At the same time, as TWZ has highlighted several times in recent years, the Army’s Patriot force is heavily strained due to constant demands that it is simply not adequately resourced to meet. The THAAD force is even smaller and is in equally heavy demand.
The latest conflict with Iran has reignited discussions about the Army’s worryingly limited capacity to meet operational needs for ballistic missile defense, as well as protection against other aerial threats. Between February and April, Iranian forces launched repeated missile and drone attacks on key bases across the Middle East. They were successful in many instances in targeting high-value military assets, including aircraft parked on the ground and air and missile defense radars.
📸 Al Jazeera shows heavily damaged AN/FPS-132 early warning radar at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, a key U.S. ballistic-missile detection system.
The AN/FPS-132 early-warning radar at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is a $1.1 billion U.S.-built missile-warning system that detects… pic.twitter.com/RcmvQff2Is
— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 10, 2026
The conflict with Iran also put a new spotlight on concerns about the depth of American stockpiles of air and missile defense interceptors, and the ability to replenish them quickly. Pressure on Patriot and THAAD units would be even more pronounced in a high-end fight, such as one across the broad expanses of the Pacific against China.
The Army has been trying to take steps to rectify these issues, including efforts underway now to expand the size and capabilities of the Patriot force. The U.S. military, overall, has been pushing industry to ramp up capacity to produce air and missile defense interceptors, as well as other critical munitions. At the same time, it will take years to fully achieve these aims.
Still, as Lt. Col. Barclay noted yesterday, questions about Army air and missile defense capacity remain, especially in the context of the Marine Corps’ broader vision for future operations. The service’s current core focus is on preparing for expeditionary and distributed operations involving the relatively rapid deployment and redeployment of forces between forward operating locations that could be well within reach of enemy standoff strikes. The Marines, like the other services, also have large established facilities that would need defending in any major conflict scenario.
The ballistic missile threat ecosystem is also not static. This is underscored by Iran’s recent use of ballistic missiles with cluster munition warheads, which are also designed to release their payloads at very high altitudes, as a way to consistently get around Israeli terminal defenses. TWZ previously explored the very serious broader implications of this in a feature you can find here.
One of the ballistic missiles launched by Iran at central Israel a short while ago carried a cluster bomb warhead, footage shows. pic.twitter.com/kaIdFcyKuj
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 24, 2026
China, in particular, continues to expand on its already diverse arsenal of ballistic missiles. Earlier this month, North Korea also notably tested a ballistic missile with a new cluster munition warhead. These developments are just some examples of a broader surge in ballistic missile developments globally in recent years. Those capabilities continue to proliferate to smaller nation-state militaries and even non-state actors.
“The purpose of the test-fire is to verify the characteristics and power of cluster bomb warhead and fragmentation mine warhead applied to the tactical ballistic missile.” pic.twitter.com/cem3NwYpAC
— Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) April 19, 2026
Ballistic missiles would be only one part of the threat picture in any future high-end fight. The development of new hypersonic weapons, as well as advanced cruise missiles, continues worldwide. There has also been an explosion in the development and adoption of long-range one-way attack drones like the aforementioned Shahed 136, a trend that now also includes the United States.
“I would argue that the adversary is not just going to throw drones at you. We’re going to have other threats in the future,” Lt. Col. Barclay stressed during yesterday’s panel, which was focused primarily on ongoing efforts to counter uncrewed aerial threats. “You’re going to see probably TBM [theater ballistic missiles], ballistic missiles, coming at you as well in a variety of other types of threats.”
With all this in mind, a new, organic theater ballistic missile capability may now be on the horizon for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
April 19 (UPI) — South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korea test launched multiple, short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, Sunday morning.
“Detailed specifications are currently under close analysis by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities,” officials in Seoul said in a statement, according to ABC News.
“Our military is closely monitoring North Korea’s military activities under a firm combined defense posture and maintains an overwhelming capability and readiness to respond to any provocation.”
The Japan Times said the Defense Ministry of Japan also confirmed the activity.
“North Korea’s series of actions, including the repeated launches of ballistic missiles and other weapons, threaten the peace and security of Japan, the region and the international community,” the ministry said in a statement.
Newsweek said Pyongyang has increased its ballistic missile testing and nuclear weapons development since the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran began nearly two months ago.
Sunday’s missile launches appear to have come from Sinpho, a coastal city in North Korea where submarines capable of launching such weapons are built.
Multiple ballistic missiles fired from eastern Sinpo area in seventh such test this year.
Published On 19 Apr 202619 Apr 2026
North Korea has launched multiple ballistic missiles towards the sea off its eastern coast, according to South Korea and Japan.
The incident on Sunday marked North Korea’s seventh ballistic missile launch this year and its fourth in April.
The missiles were fired near the city of Sinpo on North Korea’s east coast at about 6:10am on Sunday (21:10 GMT, Saturday), South Korea’s military said in a statement. It added that South Korea had bolstered its surveillance posture and was closely exchanging information with the United States and Japan.
Japan’s government posted on social media that the ballistic missiles were believed to have fallen near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula. No incursion into Japan’s exclusive economic zone was confirmed.
South Korea’s presidential office said it has held an emergency security meeting, according to media reports.
Such tests violate United Nations Security Council resolutions against North Korea’s missile programme. The diplomatically isolated country rejects the UN ban and says it infringes on its sovereign right to self-defence.
The launches come as China and the US prepare for a summit in mid-May, in which Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, are expected to discuss North Korea.
North Korea has made “very serious” advances in its ability to turn out nuclear weapons, with the probable addition of a new uranium enrichment facility, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday.
Late last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country’s status as a nuclear-armed state was irreversible and that expanding a “self-defensive nuclear deterrent” was essential to national security.