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Video captures Iranian missile striking residential building in Haifa | US-Israel war on Iran
Video captured the moment of a direct hit by an Iranian missile on a residential building in Israel’s Haifa. Multiple injuries were reported and some people are feared trapped under the rubble of the partially collapsed structure.
Published On 5 Apr 2026
Iran Is Piercing Israel’s Ballistic Missile Defenses With High Altitude Cluster Warhead Releases
One of the most striking visuals to emerge in the current conflict with Iran has been videos of ballistic missiles unleashing torrents of cluster munitions at very high altitudes over Israel. In doing so, the Iranians look to have found a worrisome way to consistently get around terminal-phase ballistic missile defenses, especially Israel’s David’s Sling.
The gap that the Iranians are leveraging with these cluster munition missile attacks goes beyond just bypassing terminal defenses. It, by extension, puts greater pressure on diminishing stocks of prized mid-course interceptors to try to defeat these incoming threats before they release their payloads. With all this in mind, what we are seeing with Iran’s attacks on Israel with ballistic missiles with cluster warheads could have even greater implications for future conflicts elsewhere, particularly in the Pacific region.
In some five weeks of fighting, Iran had launched more than 500 ballistic missiles at Israel, with at least 30 of those having carried cluster munition payloads (likely many more), according to the Times of Israel. Iran had fired ballistic missiles with cluster warheads in anger for the first time in attacks on Israel during last year’s 12 Day War.
Iran has developed multiple types of submunitions that can be dispersed via different ballistic missiles in its inventory during the terminal phases of their flight. Ballistic missiles typically fly along roughly parabolic trajectories to their targets. The arc is generally broken down into three main sections: the boost phase right after launch, the terminal phase as the missile comes back down at the end, and the mid-course phase in between. During the mid-course phase, the missiles leave the Earth’s atmosphere, with larger types spending more time in space in the middle of their flight. You can learn more about the complexities of intercepting a target in the mid-course phase in our past report here.
A typical Iranian cluster warhead reportedly contains between 20 and 30 submunitions. However, larger missiles, like members of the Khorramshahr family, are said to be able to carry up to 80. Reports also state that the cluster munitions can contain anywhere between four and 11 pounds of explosives. The damage they can cause is further magnified by the high speed with which they impact the ground.
“Iran has shown pictures in the past of triconic warheads [for ballistic missiles] equipped with at least four different sizes and types of bomblets,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank, told TWZ. “So Iran calls these warheads ‘raining warheads,’ because these different bomblets will be showered on a wider geographic target set than if it was just the traditional unitary high explosive warhead. How many depends on what kind of configuration of bomblets they can actually choose to put in, but it can be easily a dozen-plus to two dozen to three dozen, depending on the size of the bomblets.”
“Most importantly, in this conflict, the regime is using the Khoramshar ballistic missile, which is a threshold medium-range ballistic missile modified from an intermediate-range ballistic missile that can carry the heaviest reported warhead weight,” he added. “So, the regime is basically filling a large conical warhead with lots of bomblets and cluster munitions that basically fuse and disperse upon re-entry into the atmosphere, posing a real challenge, even for integrated air and missile defense systems like what the Israelis have, and causing quite a bit of damage and civilian harm.”
Differentiating between missiles carrying cluster warheads and those with unitary ones is likely to be difficult, if not impossible, before any release of submarines occurs. This creates further challenges for defenders, as we will come back to later on.
In terms of dispersion, when Iran first fired cluster munition-laden ballistic missiles at Israel last year, authorities in the latter country said the weapons had released their payloads at an altitude of approximately 23,000 feet (seven kilometers). The submunitions were scattered across an area approximately 10 miles (16 kilometers) in diameter. This is in line with a report last month from CNN, where that outlet assessed two separate Iranian cluster missile attacks to have dropped submunitions across areas in Israel between roughly seven and eight miles (approximately 11 to 13 kilometers) long.
Israel’s Haaretz has also previously reported an instance where submunitions, apparently all from one missile, hit seven populated areas within a zone measuring nearly 17 miles (27 kilometers) across. This would point to a higher release altitude than the other cases.
A higher-altitude release earlier in the terminal phase of a missile’s flight inherently presents greater challenges for defenders trying to intercept the warhead before submunition release. Once the payload is dispersed, one larger target suddenly becomes dozens of smaller ones.
The David’s Sling system’s Stunner interceptors have a reported maximum engagement altitude of around nine miles (15 kilometers). However, various factors, especially the position of the launcher in relation to the target’s flight path, would impact the circumstances in which they would be able to reach the upper end of their envelope.
There are terminal missile defense systems with greater reach, such as the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and the ship-launched Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), but their engagement envelopes still face positional constraints. THAAD would likely have the best chance as its interceptors can reach higher altitudes, in some circumstances, near the end of the transition from the mid-course to the terminal stage of flight.
As with Stunner, releases at very high altitudes would preclude intercept attempts by lower-tier terminal defenses like Patriot entirely.
All of this combines to creates a situation in which mid-course intercept attempts are critical for catching cluster munition-laden missiles before they release their payloads. However, inventories of relevant interceptors to defend targets in Israel have reportedly been dwindling after weeks of persistent Iranian ballistic missile attacks. Mid-course interceptors, like the U.S. Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) and the Israeli Arrow 3, are precious munitions that have generally been stockpiled at lower levels, to begin with. They also take years to procure and cost many millions of dollars each.
Retired Army Col. David Shank echoed much of this when speaking to TWZ about the challenges and complexities of responding to Iranian long-range ballistic missiles with cluster munition payloads. Shank, who served as Commandant of the Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and as the 10th Army Air Missile Defense Commander in Europe, also highlighted that this threat would require the use of higher-end systems to attempt intercepts, either inside or outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, before any submunition payload is released.
“We talk endo/exo-atmospheric. We’re talking THAAD capability, [and] SM-6/SM-3-capable systems,” Shank explained. “And so we’re really talking upper-tier in order to defeat that type of target once it is launched.”
The video below shows THAAD interceptors being fired at incoming Iranian threats in the course of the current conflict.
“Obviously, the goal is to kill it before they even launch it through a variety of means to do that,” he continued. “But if you can’t do that, and there is some type of air launch. And the next step is that upper-tier capability, coupled with other domains.”
In terms of other domains, “let’s just talk space real quick,” he added. “Sensing that launch and detecting it and then passing that information over a network, ultimately to what we’re talking about now,” systems like THAAD and ships armed with SM-3s and SM-6s that are “capable of defeating that threat with endo- and exo-atmosphere capabilities I mentioned.”
Shank underscored the importance of trying to intercept ballistic missiles with cluster warheads at as high altitudes as possible before they can release their payloads.
“Once it hits that point where bomblets are released, so a mechanism within the platform that releases the bomblets, instead of now having one aerial threat, now you obviously have many,” he said. “So, very difficult now to engage multiple aerial threats at one time.”
Shank told us that watching videos of submunitions being dispersed from Iranian ballistic missiles reminded him of past modeling and simulation of such attacks he observed during his time in the Army.
“I’ve seen modeling and simulation, when I was still in uniform years ago, of how we would fight against those types of early-release munitions,” he said. “They had different names then, but it’s very similar to what we’re seeing now in real time.”
That modeling and simulation “would show that overmatch” and that “need to defeat that capability before it does disperse those early-release munitions or those bomblets,” he added.
The retired Army air defense officer noted that the ballistic missile threat ecosystem in the Middle East, in general, is made more complicated by the relatively short distances those weapons travel from launch points in Iran to their targets.
“In the scenario that’s playing out real time, potentially, if they’re launched out of southwestern Iran at the GCCs [Gulf Cooperation Council states on the Arabian Peninsula] – they’re the closest – so minutes, two, three, four minutes,” said Shank.
The time to react is further compressed when facing missiles carrying scatterable payloads. “You’re down to a minute or two.”
Attempts can still be made to intercept submunitions after they are released. At the same time, in addition to the challenge of trying to prioritize and engage dozens of smaller targets, intercept attempts against individual submunitions also impose different costs on the defender. These are targets that are likely to be cheap even compared to lower-cost interceptors. Trying to shoot them down with something like Patriot would create an even more lopsided exchange ratio. Also their singular destructive power is far less than a unitary payload.
“What’s the cost curve look like?” Shank said, speaking generally about how expensive this proposition could become.
“I talk cost curve a lot, [but] you got to recognize the boots and the people that are on the ground on the other end of that, and other national assets and capabilities,” Shank noted. “What is a Soldier’s life worth? … What is an E-3 AWACS aircraft that is high-demand, low-density – what value do you put on something like that, or even a Patriot radar?”
Overall, Iran’s use of ballistic missiles with cluster munition warheads highlights a “very big challenge in front of us, and so when I say in front of us, obviously in front of the warfighters. It’s a lot,” Shank said, highlighting the broader ramifications. “From an operator perspective, you have to discern which target is which, which one should be the priority to defeat first, how many of those bomblets are possibly going to impact dirt and not be a threat, and which ones will be the threat. You’ve got to discern [that] fairly quickly, and then pass on those engagement authorities to the shooters.”
As noted earlier, it is likely that defenders would be challenged to differentiate between missiles carrying submunitions and those with unitary payloads until a release occurs. This can only make it more difficult to prioritize intercept attempts against missiles with cluster munition warheads, especially in the mid-course phase of flight, when it would be most ideal. This could then contribute to a further wearing down of stocks of critical mid-course interceptors.
Shank stressed that this is not an entirely new problem set for the U.S. military, citing the aforementioned modeling and simulations.
“It helped drive discussions on increased [force] structure, increased requirements. It helped recognize, in this scenario [including missiles with cluster munition warheads], adversarial capabilities with regards to munitions,” he explained. “The results, or the findings, personally, were somewhat laughable.”
“We would run a scenario, not necessarily the Middle East, but we’d run a general scenario, and the outcomes would be, well, we need 48 Patriot battalions, as an example. And then that’s a hypothetical number, but it was a very large number,” Shank said. “And, so, when you think through this, at the time, I think the U.S. Army had 14 Patriot battalions. And this was a 2030-2035 scenario, which we’re a lot closer to today, and we have 16 Patriot battalions. And so even if you factored in – which we were not during that modeling and simulation period, or exercise – but even if you factored in our allies and partners, I’m not sure we have 48 Patriot battalions on planet earth.”
The PATRIOT Missile in Action
TWZ has written on several occasions in the past about the strains on the U.S. Army’s Patriot force, which is inadequate to meet current demands. This is reflective of broader air and missile defense capacity limitations across the U.S. military, despite efforts in recent years to change that paradigm. This has been highlighted again in the course of the current conflict with Iran, and would be an even bigger issue should a high-end fight, such as one in the Pacific against China, erupt.
As an aside to all this, Shank pointed to the importance of so-called “left-of-launch” operations to neutralize threats before they are even launched.
“Within the U.S. Army, we had four ‘pillars’ within integrated air and missile defense. It’s attack operations. It’s active air defense, passive air defense, and command and control,” he noted. “And so the attack operations piece is that left of launch piece. And I would also tie today some of our offensive cyber capabilities as part of attack operations.”
“Again, if we can prevent an adversary from launching or from getting to the launch pad,” he added. “So, whether it’s a supply chain disruption, whether it’s a special operations force with eyes on a target forward on a battlefield, or what we possess now [with] some of our surface-to-surface precision munitions, that can influence and defeat those capabilities before they launch.”
In recent years, the Army and other elements of the U.S. military have also pointed to the value of a similar breadth of left-of-launch activities for disrupting and defeating drone attacks, as you can read more about here.
It should be stressed here that, at least from what has been observed so far, Iran has been using ballistic missiles with cluster munition warheads primarily as terror weapons against population centers in Israel. The high-altitude releases have certainly helped those weapons get around terminal defenses like David’s Sling, but have also limited their ability to focus their effects on specific points on the ground. For vengeance attacks that also wear down the supply of mid-course interceptors, this is likely deemed adequate, and even less accurate cluster attacks still put military target under threat.
However, Iran’s demonstration of how this tactic can strain on an opponent’s layered defenses does have serious implications beyond the current conflict and the Middle East. Independent reports have previously highlighted the vulnerability of key U.S. air bases, especially in the Pacific, to attacks by cluster munition-laden ballistic missiles. Aircraft parked in the open and thin-skinned fuel storage sites are at particular risk from such strikes. This ties into a separate and increasingly heated debate about the value of investing in new hardened infrastructure, which TWZ continues to follow closely.
Those assessments are based on lower-altitude releases where submissions can be more focused on particular target areas. However, high-altitude releases could still be focused, at least to a general degree, on saturating very large area targets, including sprawling established air bases. As an example, the two main runways at the U.S. Air Force’s highly strategic Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, are roughly two miles long. They have taxiways and numerous open parking aprons attached to them. There are many other sprawling facilities on the island, too.
For an adversary like China, a barrage of missiles designed to scatter submunitions across larger areas could be relevant in striking a target like Andersen, or anything similarly large. Those weapons could also be used to help overwhelm defenses, eat up valuable interceptors, and otherwise sow chaos as part of layered strikes that also include more precise missiles, as well as drones. Even dispersing submunitions at lower altitudes to achieve better accuracy, but still relatively high within a system like Patriot’s interception envelope, would give a much smaller window to destroy the missile than compared to a traditional unitary warhead. In a future high-end fight in the Pacific, Chinese forces could also choose to employ this capability to attack large population centers, especially in Japan and elsewhere in the First Island Chain, similar to Iran’s attacks against Israel now.
The development of precision-guided submunitions capable of being released via ballistic missile would further change the equation. In 2024, the Guangdong Aerodynamic Research Academy (GARA) in China notably put forward a tangential concept for a hypersonic boost-glide vehicle carrying different kinds of scatterable payloads, including miniature missiles and drones. Ballistic missiles often also reach hypersonic speeds, generally defined as anything above Mach 5, in the terminal phase of flight, and any submunitions they release have to be able to withstand similar stresses.
There is no doubt that China, in particular, has been keenly watching the outcomes of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Israel, as well as other countries in the region. Israel’s integrated air and missile defense network has long been touted as the best in the world. The Gulf Arab states have also spent billions of dollars over the past decade or so to bolster their capabilities and overall capacity in the past decade or so with this exact scenario top of mind. The U.S. military’s higher-end ballistic missile defense posture in the Pacific remains relatively limited, and focused largely on very particular regions, despite years now of efforts to dramatically expand that architecture.
Iran’s ability to launch retaliatory attacks has been significantly degraded over the past five weeks, but it has been able to keep up a persistent tempo regardless. China has a broader array of far more capable ballistic missiles, as well as other stand-off strike weapons, that it would bring to bear en masse in any future high-end fight in the Pacific.
Other countries, such as Russia or North Korea, could look to capitalize on what Iran has demonstrated with its cluster munition missile attack, as well. There has been a burst in the development and proliferation of ballistic missiles, in general, including to non-state actors, globally, in recent years.
If anything, application of these tactics by Iran help make the case for the Trump administration’s highly ambitious and expensive Golden Dome missile defense network, which will put a much higher-focus on mid-course intercept. This includes stationing interceptors in space.
Overall, while Iran has been using high-altitude releases of submunitions from ballistic missiles to help ensure it can continue executing succes attacks on Israel, it is a tactic that could have significant implications in other contexts in conflicts well beyond the Middle East.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
Drone footage shows a factory in Israel damaged by Iranian missile debris | US-Israel war on Iran
Drone footage from Israel shows damage to a factory in Petah Tikva after debris from an intercepted Iranian missile struck the site. The attack comes as Israel says it continues to intercept incoming missiles, on the 35th day of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Published On 3 Apr 2026
In major speech, Trump says Iran war will be over ‘shortly’ but offers little clarity
WASHINGTON — In his first formal address to the nation since launching a war on Iran more than a month ago, President Trump on Wednesday night repeated a familiar list of claimed successes — and brushed aside setbacks — while providing little clarity on a clear path to ending the conflict.
“We are going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast. We are getting very close,” the president said from the White House.
Trump said Iran is “no longer a threat,” yet spoke of potentially needing to escalate the conflict and increase bombings on Iran’s energy and oil infrastructure if it continues to fight back.
“If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants, very hard and probably simultaneously,” he said. “We have not hit their oil, even though that’s the easiest target of all, because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding. But we could hit it, and it would be gone, and there’s not a thing they could do about it.”
Trump earlier this week said he expects to pull American forces from Iran within three weeks, and emphasized that the United States does not have to be in the Middle East but that it is only there to “help our allies.”
In his speech, Trump did not lay out a specific timeline for an exit strategy, but said the the U.S. is “on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly.”
“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” he said. “In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.”
He also repeated his assertions, made for weeks, that the U.S. has basically already defeated Iran and won the war, which he characterized as a “decisive, overwhelming victory.”
He also stressed that it is “very important that we keep this conflict in perspective,” before listing out — by month and day — the length of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War.
Prior to Wednesday night’s formal address, Trump had only spoken of the war — which U.S. and Israel launched against Iran on Feb. 28 — in less formal settings, during media gatherings and other public events.
The speech was a key messaging moment for the president, who, 33 days into the war, has struggled to clearly explain the scope and objectives of a conflict that has killed thousands of people in Iran and neighboring countries and disrupted global markets.
Trump repeatedly insisted that the U.S. is doing great, is “in great shape for the future,” and doesn’t need the oil that Iran has put a stranglehold on in the Strait of Hormuz, ignoring the clear effects of the war and those disruptions on the U.S., including on gas prices.
Those effects are already contributing to fractures within Trump’s base. Some have expressed frustration with the administration’s decision to enter a new conflict in the Middle East, concerns that could become a political liability for Republicans ahead of the high-stakes midterm elections in November.
In his remarks, Trump appeared to be speaking to those who have criticized him for deviating from his campaign promises by entering the war, saying he had promised to never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon “from the very first day” he announced his first presidential campaign in 2015.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the economic pressure the war has placed on Americans, including rising gas prices, arguing that the short-term financial strain is necessary for national security. He has also promised that gas prices will “come tumbling down” when the conflict ends.
“Gas prices will rapidly come back down,” Trump repeated on Wednesday. “Stock prices will rapidly go back up. They haven’t come down very much. Frankly, they came down a little bit, but they’ve had some very good days.”
Trump appeared less energetic during his evening speech than during some of his previous daytime events, where he has consistently maintained an upbeat tone about the war, while offering inconsistent accounts of what his administration aimed to achieve, or how long and what it would take to meet those objectives.
Those inconsistencies were evident even hours ahead of the address. In an interview with Reuters, he said he was not concerned about the enriched uranium held by Tehran — a statement that appeared to undercut a central justification for the war.
“That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. military will be “watching it by satellite.”
In public remarks ahead of the address, Trump said the war was launched to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, but also that the U.S. had completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities months prior, in separate attacks over the summer. He also said he was worried about Iran’s enriched uranium, wanted the U.S. to take it, and would even consider sending U.S. forces inside Iran to collect it.
There have also been mixed messages about the U.S.’s intentions for Iran’s leadership since Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the conflict, leaving a leadership vacuum that was filled by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, a 56-year-old hard-line cleric who Trump initially called an “unacceptable choice.”
As Iran’s clerical rulers maintained a firm grip on the country, Trump administration officials, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, argued that U.S. war objectives had “nothing to do” with Iran’s leadership. But Trump in recent days has repeatedly talked about how “regime change” was achieved.
On Wednesday, Trump said a deal remained within reach with Iran’s new leaders, who he called “less radical and much more reasonable.”
Hours before Trump was to deliver his speech, Rubio posted a video which he began by saying, “Many Americans are asking, ‘Why did the United States have to attack Iran now?’” — an apparent acknowledgment that Trump’s own answers to that question in recent days may have failed to resonate.
Rubio also pushed another rationale for the war that the administration has floated on and off for the past month — saying Iran was building up an arsenal of missiles and drones to shield its nuclear ambitions, and that the war was the “last best chance” for the U.S. to eliminate those weapons capabilities before it was too late.
“We were on the verge of an Iran that had so many missiles and so many drones that nobody could do anything about their nuclear weapons program in the future,” Rubio said. “That was an intolerable risk.”
Others also tried to frame the war narrative Wednesday.
Prior to Trump’s speech, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian issued a public letter denouncing what he described as “a flood of distortions and manufactured narratives” from the U.S., and arguing Iran is not a threat and has only ever defended itself against U.S. aggression.
He called on the American people to “look beyond the machinery of misinformation” from the Trump administration and reach their own conclusions about the war and its purpose, at one point echoing a question also being asked by some in Trump’s base: “Is ‘America First’ truly among the priorities of the U.S. government today?”
He noted Iran was in the midst of nuclear negotiations with the U.S. when the U.S. attacked it “as a proxy for Israel,” and accused U.S. leaders of committing a “war crime” by targeting Iran’s energy and industrial facilities.
“Exactly which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war?” he asked.
Israeli police inspect damage on the road after missile impact | US-Israel war on Iran
Police inspect a strike site in Tel Aviv after a missile hit the city, causing injuries as the US-Israeli war on Iran enters its fifth week. Meanwhile, Washington signals the conflict could soon wind down, even as timelines remain unclear.
Published On 1 Apr 2026
Trump says he expects U.S. to end role in Iran war within 3 weeks
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Tuesday that he expects the United States to end its involvement in the war with Iran within three weeks, declaring there probably will be “no reason” for American forces to stay in the region even as top defense officials maintain Tehran’s military capabilities have not been fully eliminated.
Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event that he is confident the U.S. objectives in the conflict will be largely achieved by then, whether Iran makes a “deal” with the United States or not.
“If they come to the table that will be good, but it doesn’t matter whether they come or not,” Trump said. “We’ve set them back. It will take 15 to 20 years to rebuild what we have done to them.”
Trump added that he believes the threats to the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil route, will be “all cleared up” by the time the U.S. leaves the region. But if issues remain, he said, that will not be a problem for the United States.
“That’s not for us,” he said. “That will be for whoever is using the strait.”
Trump’s comments came hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that, a month into the war, Iran still has the ability to launch offensive missiles, despite ongoing U.S. and Israeli efforts to weaken Tehran’s military capabilities and weapons programs.
“Yes, they will shoot some missiles, but we will shoot them down,” Hegseth told reporters at a Pentagon briefing, acknowledging the remaining threat.
The comment, made during the first public briefing on the conflict in nearly two weeks, underscored that despite weeks of intensive U.S. military operations and repeated assertions by Trump that Iran’s military has been “obliterated,” the threats posed by Iranian forces have not been fully eliminated.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the briefing that the U.S. military remains focused on “interdicting and destroying” Iran’s weapons warehouses and facilities.
“We’ve continued to do the work against Iran’s missile, drone and naval production facilities,” Caine said.
Although air and naval strikes have been the primary focus so far, U.S. officials have not ruled out the possibility of ground operations as thousands of American soldiers and Marines have begun arriving in the Middle East.
Hegseth said it is up to Trump to determine whether ground operations in Iran will become the next phase in the conflict, which the president has said he is open to ending through diplomatic talks.
Trump repeated over the weekend that Iran is “begging to make a deal” to end the war, but on Monday, the president threatened to target Iran’s power-generating plans and oil wells and even desalination plants if a “deal is not shortly reached.”
President Trump speaking Tuesday in the Oval Office.
(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Monday that the administration will “operate within the confines of the law,” when asked about Trump’s threat to target infrastructure that would potentially harm civilians.
Caine told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. would only “strike lawful targets” when asked about American military considerations for civilian targets.
“We are always thinking about those considerations and developing options to be able to mitigate those risks,” Caine said.
Since the start of the war, Iranian officials have condemned a series of U.S. military attacks that have hit schools, including a Feb. 28 strike at an elementary school that killed at least 175 people, many of them children.
As Trump issues a new wave of threats on key infrastructure, he has at the same time touted ongoing diplomatic talks with Iran and reportedly told aides he’s willing to end the war without resolving Iran’s de facto blockade of the Strait of Hormuz that has rattled global energy markets.
Americans have also felt the financial pinch because of the war when it comes to energy prices. Gasoline prices in the United States reached an average of $4 a gallon Tuesday, a price that Trump says Americans are willing to pay to endure because “they are also feeling a lot safer.”
“All I have to do is leave Iran, and I will be doing that very soon and, [prices] will come tumbling down,” Trump said.
Hegseth, for example, said those diplomatic talks are “very real,” but stressed that the military pressure will continue alongside those negotiations and that ground operations remain an option.
“Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we can come at them with boots on the ground. And guess what? There are,” Hegseth said. “If we needed to, we could execute those options on behalf of the president of the United States and this department, or maybe we don’t have to use them at all. Maybe negotiations will work.”
He said the goal was to remain “unpredictable.” Caine added that the presence of U.S. ground forces in the region can serve as a “pressure point” as diplomatic efforts continue.
As the hostilities continued in the region on Tuesday, the State Department warned American citizens in Saudi Arabia that U.S. officials were “tracking reports of threats against locations where American citizens gather.
“We advise U.S. citizens that hotels and other gathering points including U.S. businesses and U.S. educational institutions may be potential targets,” officials wrote in a new warning.
And in Rome, Pope Leo XIV told reporters that he hopes Trump is “looking for an offramp” to end the war in Iran and made an appeal to “decrease the amount of violence,” according to the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Trump administration officials have faced challenges in securing support from some U.S. allies, an issue that Hegseth and the president have publicly pointed out.
On Tuesday, Trump complained that countries have “refused to get involved” in the war and efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. allies’ access to oil has been affected by Iran’s chokehold on the key waterway as a result of the joint operation launched by U.S. and Israel. But now, Trump wants those countries to deal with the strait.
“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT,” Trump wrote on his social media website.
Trump added that countries will have to “start learning how to fight” for themselves.
“The U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” Trump wrote. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”
In a separate post, Trump singled out France for barring Israeli military planes from flying over its airspace.
“The USA will REMEMBER!!!” Trump posted on his social media website.
On Tuesday, the Italian and U.K. governments reportedly restricted U.S. warplanes from landing in their military bases.
At the Pentagon, Hegseth acknowledged that the U.S. military has faced “roadblocks or hesitations” from U.S. allies when asking for assistance or use of their bases — and said the president is simply noting that “we don’t have much of an alliance.”
“A lot has been shown to the world about what our allies would be willing to do for the United States of America when we undertake an effort of this scope on behalf of the free world,” Hegseth said.
U.S. Is Burning Through Tomahawk Cruise Missile Stockpile At An Alarming Rate: Report
The Pentagon is alarmed by the rate at which Tomahawk cruise missile stocks have been depleted during ongoing operations against Iran, according to officials who spoke to The Washington Post. The latest development highlights a matter of growing importance for the Department of Defense, which is increasingly looking at the resilience of weapons stocks as it envisages a future high-end scenario in the Pacific, especially a conflict over Taiwan.
So far, the U.S. Navy has fired more than 850 Tomahawk missiles in the war with Iran, officials familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. This has prompted discussions about how more missiles could be made available.
As it stands, only a few hundred examples of the critical long-range strike weapon are manufactured each year, meaning the global supply is limited. The exact number available to the U.S. military at any given time is a closely guarded secret, although the article suggested a higher-end figure of between 4,000 and 4,500 Tomahawk missiles on hand at the start of Epic Fury, and a lower-end figure closer to 3,000 missiles. Again, the Tomahawk would be a primary weapon system used in a conflict with China, where the target sets can range into the tens of thousands, and the country’s anti-access umbrella will require the use of standoff munitions like none other in history.
“The Pentagon has tracked the number of Tomahawks used with an increasing focus on what the burn rate will mean for not only a sustained campaign against Iran but for future military operations as well,” the report states.
One official told The Washington Post that the number of Tomahawks left in the Middle East was “alarmingly low,” while another said that without intervention, the Pentagon is closing in on “Winchester” — military slang meaning out of ammunition — for its supply of the missiles in the region.
The Tomahawk also comes with a hefty price tag: up to $3.6 million for some of the more recent versions, and each round can require up to two years to build. The Navy also faces a problem in that, in recent years, only small batches have been purchased: just 57 examples were included in last year’s defense budget.
At the same time, the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that critical munitions stockpiles have not been dangerously depleted in the Iran war.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this month that the U.S. military “has more than enough munitions, ammo and weapons stockpiles to achieve the goals of Operation Epic Fury laid out by President Trump — and beyond.”
Every indication we have seen is that for some munitions, that is not reality. The war in Ukraine and constant crisis in the Middle East have depleted those stockpiles, and many of the weapons take years to build, with finite caps on how many can be delivered in any given year. This is a story we have been covering for years. The Trump administration is working to greatly expand production of advanced munitions, but even the fruits of those efforts will take years to realize.
UPDATES:
We have concluded updates for the day.
UPDATE: 10:37 PM EST-
A missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia has led to significant injuries to U.S. personnel. 10 American service members were wounded, two of which were seriously injured. It isn’t clear what damage was done to aircraft, but we have seen at least one tanker destroyed in recent satellite imagery. This is in addition to the attack that damaged multiple tankers and destroyed another earlier in the war.
Trump is threatening to abandon NATO after member nations did not pitch in with opening the Strait:
He is also joking about renaming the Strait after himself or the U.S.:
Trump is also saying Cuba is next on his list:
As expected, the USS George Washington and its strike group are deploying to the Middle East:
UPDATE: 3:30 PM EST –
Reuters is reporting that Arab states in the Gulf are urging the United States to ensure that any deal with Tehran should do more than end the war. Instead, it must ensure Iranian missile and drone capabilities are “permanently curbed” and that Iran will never again be able to “weaponize” global energy supplies. The agency cites four unnamed Gulf sources.
Meanwhile, it appears that Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait are prioritizing a quick end to the war, while the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain are more willing for the fighting to continue, if their longer-term aims are met in any deal to end the war.
UPDATE: 3:10 PM EST –
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has confirmed that Israel struck two of its most important steel production facilities, as well as nuclear sites — presumably including the Khondab Heavy Water Complex (see previous updates).
Araghchi said that Friday’s strikes contradicted President Donald Trump’s pledge to postpone attacking Iran’s energy infrastructure for 10 days after he claimed talks were “going well.” He further said that Tehran would exact a “heavy price” for the attacks.
Saudi Arabia wants the U.S. military to ramp up its attacks on Iran, according to a Saudi intelligence source, and the kingdom is meanwhile reportedly also considering joining the fight directly, alongside the United States and Israel. Whether or not Saudi Arabia also starts launching strikes against Iran remains to be seen, but it is the clearest indication so far that the kingdom might become more deeply involved in the conflict, at least at some level.
A Saudi intelligence source confirmed to The Guardian that Riyadh was urging the United States to both continue and intensify the military campaign against Iran. The same source confirmed similar reporting in The New York Times, which states that Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had called upon Trump to not curtail Operation Epic Fury, and that the U.S.-Israeli campaign represented a “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East.
Earlier this week, Trump told journalists that the crown prince is “a warrior. He’s fighting with us.”
At this point, however, there are no reports of active Saudi military involvement in the conflict, but the kingdom is now at least weighing up that option, if peace efforts fail.
This week, The Wall Street Journal and Jerusalem Post both reported that Saudi Arabia has decided to open up additional military bases for the use of the U.S. military in its operations against Iran. Reportedly, the facilities include King Fahd Air Base in Taif in western Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has come under direct Iranian attack since the start of Epic Fury, including a drone strike last week on the oil refinery in Yanbu on the Saudi Red Sea coast.
At the same time, Saudi oil exports are not as vulnerable as those of other countries in the region, so it has not suffered to the same degree as other Gulf states. Much of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports are carried by a pipeline to the Red Sea, purposefully avoiding the Strait of Hormuz.
There is also the threat that the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, which have long waged a separate war with Saudi Arabia, could be drawn into the current conflict if the Saudi position changes.
Were that to happen, the vital Red Sea oil pipeline could become a very prominent target for Iran and the Houthis.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared today that shipping “to and from ports of allies and supporters of the Israeli-American enemies” is prohibited through any corridor or to any destination, Iranian state media reported.
The IRGC added that the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and any attempted transit through the strategic waterway will face “harsh measures.”
There have been reports today of three container ships of various nationalities turning back from the Strait of Hormuz, after warnings were issued by the IRGC Navy.
As we reported in our previous rolling coverage, Trump threatened last Saturday that he would destroy Iranian power plants if Tehran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
On Monday, the U.S. leader postponed his threat for five days (until Friday), citing “very good and productive conversations” with Iran on ending the war — something that Tehran has described as “fake news.”
Now, Trump is pushing that deadline back again, pausing his threat to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure for 10 days until April 6, claiming that the request came from Tehran and that talks were going “very well.”
At the same time, there are suggestions that the Iran war, in general, may be of diminishing interest to the U.S. president.
“[Trump] is getting a little bored with Iran,” a senior White House official told Jake Traylor of MS NOW. “Not that he regrets it or something — he’s just bored and wants to move on.”
There are suggestions of something of a rift between Israel and the United States, as to the course the conflict should take.
According to Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, U.S. Vice President JD Vance had a “difficult” call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week.
Reportedly, Vance said that Israeli assessments for toppling the Iranian regime were not realistic enough, saying, “You were too optimistic in your assessments regarding the overthrow of the regime in Iran.”
As we reported earlier this week, F-35Cs from the U.S. Marine Corps are the latest fighters poised to deploy to the Middle East region for Operation Epic Fury. The movement of these aircraft to RAF Lakenheath in England signals what is set to be the first land-based combat deployment for the F-35C, the carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter flown by both the Navy and Marine Corps. We now have some better imagery of the first visit of these aircraft to a base in the United Kingdom.
The United Arab Emirates has told allies that it would participate in a multinational maritime task force intended to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as it pushes to form a coalition to ensure shipping can pass through the vital waterway, the Financial Times reports.
According to the FT, the UAE has told the United States and other Western nations that it would take part, and that Abu Dhabi would deploy assets from its own navy.
Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE is taking a harder line on Iran, as it comes under regular attack by Tehran’s retaliation strikes.
The same report also states that the UAE is working on a UN Security Council resolution with Bahrain to provide any future task force with a mandate.
According to an assessment from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., the U.S. strike campaign has settled into a “sustainable pace of bombing,” striking between 300 and 500 targets per day. U.S. forces are also now mainly using stand-in weapons, rather than more expensive standoff munitions. As a result of the “munitions transition,” the costs of running the war have been greatly reduced — although not without risk to aircraft and airmen.
The Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal has reported, quoting Defense Department officials. Having more troops in the region would give Trump more military options and greater bargaining power, as he seeks to bring Tehran to the negotiating table.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that “it should not be necessary” for U.S. forces to invade Iran. “I think we can get this resolved without it,” he added.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also suggested that the U.S. military will not need to deploy ground troops to accomplish U.S. objectives in the war, although he also reflected on the importance of giving Trump “maximum optionality” for any contingency.
So far, it seems that Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has not yet agreed to negotiations.
Should the U.S. military conduct some kind of ground operation, various energy infrastructure within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would come under Iranian attack, with a target list published by Iran’s state-backed Fars News Agency. Designated targets include desalination plants, nuclear power plants, and other power hubs across the UAE.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say they carried out further strikes on targets in Tehran early on Friday. A brief military statement said Israeli forces “completed a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran.”
In a separate statement, the IDF said that it had also struck “ballistic missiles and aerial defense systems production sites across Iran.” It reported hitting missile launchers and storage sites in western Iran, as well as missile production sites in the capital. Other targets apparently included Iran’s primary facility for the production of naval cruise missiles and sea mines in Yazd, Iran.
“The site was used for the planning, development, assembly, and storage of advanced missiles intended for launch from cruise platforms, submarines, and helicopters toward both mobile and stationary maritime targets,” the IDF said.
The latest round of U.S.-Israeli strikes hit a heavy water reactor in central Iran, Iranian media reported today.
“The Khondab Heavy Water Complex was targeted in two stages by aggression from the American and Zionist enemy,” the Fars News Agency reported, citing Hassan Ghamari, an official in the central Markazi province. Fars and other media said there were no casualties or radiation leaks from the site.
The facility is intended to produce the heavy water used to cool nuclear reactors. As a byproduct of this process, plants of this kind also produce plutonium, which can potentially be used in nuclear weapons. This would offer another route to procuring a nuclear warhead, other than enriched uranium.
There are reports out of Iran that recent U.S. and Israeli airstrikes targeted key steel production facilities. The semi-official Iranian Mehr news outlet claims that steel plants were hit in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, with separate attacks on the Khuzestan Steel and Mobarakeh Steel factories.
In response to an inquiry from The Jerusalem Post, the Israeli military said that it was not aware of any Israeli strikes on the facilities.
The U.S. military has deployed uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) for patrols as part of its operations against Iran, the Pentagon has said, according to the Jerusalem Post. The specific type of drone boats that have been deployed was not reported, although this is not the first time that the U.S. military has used USVs in the region, notably in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has accused the U.S. military of using Persian Gulf citizens as human shields.
“From outset of this war, U.S. soldiers fled military bases in GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] to hide in hotels and offices. They use citizens as human shield. Hotels in U.S. deny bookings to officers who may endanger customers. GCC hotels should do same,” Abbas Araghchi said in a post on his X account.
As we reported yesterday, Iranian bombardment of U.S. military facilities in the wider region does appear to be driving the relocation of soldiers, although there is no suggestion of a human shield policy.
According to a report from The New York Times, citing military personnel and American officials, a significant number of U.S. troops have been forced to relocate from their bases to hotels and office spaces throughout the region.
Reports in the Lebanese media suggest that an Israeli strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs early today. Several explosions were heard in the area, which is considered a Hezbollah stronghold. Israel has previously issued evacuation warnings for the area but provided no specific warning in advance of Friday’s strike, AFP said.
Kuwait’s Shuwaikh port was hit by drones, causing material damage with no injuries reported, the Kuwait Ports Authority said today.
The international airport in Kuwait City also appears to have been on the receiving end of recent Iranian attacks, with a significant blaze there today, after a reported drone strike.
Iran-linked hackers today claimed they had accessed FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email inbox, Reuters reports. The group claims to have published photographs of the director and other documents on the internet.
Satellite imagery of the Yazd missile complex, one of the most important in Iran, from earlier this month, reveals the shadow of an apparent Khorramshahr missile before being launched toward Israel. The original Khorramshahr first emerged publicly in 2017, and it is assessed to be derived, at least in part, from a North Korean design. It is a liquid-fuel medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) with a claimed range of around 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers).
Recent analysis from ThePrint, an Indian digital news platform, suggests that Iran has launched around 4,300 missiles and drones since the start of the current conflict, with the majority of these targeting Gulf nations, rather than Israel. The analysis states that Tehran has launched at least 1,815 drones and 372 missiles at the UAE since the start of the war. Israel, in comparison, has faced roughly 930 missile and drone attacks in the same period.
In related news, Reuters today published an assessment stating that, so far, the Pentagon can only confirm that about a third of the Iranian missile arsenal has been destroyed.
Satellite imagery from yesterday indicates that the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford has left Naval Support Activity Souda Bay in Crete, Greece, escorted by three patrol boats. The supercarrier went to Souda Bay for repairs after a fire broke out in the laundry area while underway in the Middle East on March 12, injuring two sailors.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says that his country has “reached an important arrangement” with Saudi Arabia on defense cooperation. The agreement between the defense ministries of the two countries is almost certain to involve counter-drone technologies and expertise.
“We are ready to share our expertise and systems with Saudi Arabia and to work together to strengthen the protection of lives,” Zelensky wrote on X. “Now into the fifth year, Ukrainians are resisting the same kind of terrorist attacks — ballistic missiles and drones — that the Iranian regime is currently carrying out in the Middle East and the Gulf region. Saudi Arabia also has capabilities that are of interest to Ukraine, and this cooperation can be mutually beneficial.”
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
Rescue workers rush to save lives after south Tehran missile strike | Conflict
Iranian rescue workers have been pulling survivors and bodies out of a residential building in south Tehran after a US-Israeli missile strike. Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi was at the scene.
Published On 27 Mar 2026
Is The U.S. Dropping Anti-Tank Mines To Stop Iranian Missile Launchers?
Iran is accusing the U.S. of dropping anti-tank landmines in an area near one of its underground missile facilities (often referred to as missile cities) that it claims killed several people. While we cannot independently verify the provenance of the images provided by Iranian media or the casualty claims, the use of these munitions would make sense. Despite an intense bombing campaign against Iran’s missiles and launch sites, the Islamic Republic is still firing these weapons at targets across the Middle East. A highly-targeted area-denial campaign around specific missile facilities using mines could help reduce that threat.
The accusation about the landmines came Thursday morning in the form of social media posts by Iran’s official Tasnim news agency.
“These explosive packages resemble ready-made canned food, are somewhat larger than tuna cans, and contain explosives that detonate after being opened, causing casualties,” Tasnim wrote on Telegram. “These packages have been dropped in the skies over the southern suburbs of Shiraz, especially in the village of Kafari, and unfortunately have caused the martyrdom of several people in these areas.”
The Tasnim posts included several pictures of what appear to be BLU-91/B scatterable anti-tank landmines.
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In its story about the landmines, the Bellingcat open source investigations collective geolocated some to the village of Kafari, Iran…,” the organization stated, citing a video from Canadian lawyer and activist Dimitri Lascaris, who is in Shiraz.
“This video shows at least three mines approximately two kilometres away from the entrance to what is reported to be Shiraz South Missile Base, an Iranian ‘missile city,’” Bellingcat added. The video shows several of the mines scattered in a village.
In Major Escalation, Epstein Regime Rains Electro-Magnetic Mines Down On Iranian Village
“The US is the only participant in the war known to possess these mines,” Bellingcat posited. “They were developed after the US stopped supplying arms to Iran. A review of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Arms Transfer Database, and US Major Arms Sales does not show any transfers of these mines to Israel.”
We cannot independently verify the origin of the mines seen in the video, but it seems unlikely that Iranians would have access to them. Still, it is possible they did, or have produced dummies or clones, and placed them there for propaganda value. U.S. Central Command declined to say if these mines are being used during Epic Fury.
Iran has been able to preserve a number of its missile launchers, which could involve moving them in and out of underground facilities like the one near Shiraz or hiding them elsewhere in the area and moving them to designated launch points. This is occurring even after these facilities have been repeatedly bombed. These aerial attacks have focused on keeping their entrances caved in. These strikes are on top of the vast, resource-consuming interdiction effort to hunt for and strike launchers that are exposed. So, continued launches from these areas would be a major reason why resorting to deploying anti-tank mines there makes sense and would have a high military value.
Designed to attack tanks and trucks, the mines could destroy or disable the launchers and likely the payloads they carry. They could also make roads to and around the underground missile cities unpassable. Even limiting where the launchers could go within these areas could make them more vulnerable.
The mines are part of the Gator family of systems that includes the air-delivered BLU-91/B and a companion anti-personnel type (BLU-92/B). Different mixes of the mines can be loaded with several types of bomb-like air-dropped dispensers, which break open after release to disperse their payloads over a targeted area.
Each mine and dispenser combination has its own designation. Cluster munitions loaded with Gator mines can be employed by many of the U.S. combat aircraft known to be taking part in Operation Epic Fury today, including bombers. The last known combat employment of Gator mines appears to have been during the Gulf War in 1991. There were unconfirmed reports of Gator use in the opening phases of the war in Afghanistan in 2001.
Air-delivered BLU-91s and BLU-92s both have box-like “aeroballistic adaptors.” That feature is absent on related mines in U.S. Army service that are laid via launchers mounted UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and trucks.
From a humanitarian viewpoint, there is concern about collateral damage from civilians inadvertently setting them off or picking them up without knowing what they are. Gator mines are not known to have anti-handling features but can still be dangerous to move. They can also be preset to self-destruct after four hours, 48 hours, or 15 days. It’s worth noting that the mines do not always detonate themselves or otherwise function intended, as is the case with all munitions.
That being said, the missile cities are removed from urban areas and sit within large, tightly controlled perimeters. Mining these areas, where civilians have no access, would present a far lower danger to innocent lives than mining random roads or ones near military bases in urban areas.
Of note is that in terms of the mines themselves, the pictures circulating online so far only appear to show BLU-91s having been used in Iran. These are readily distinguishable from BLU-92 anti-personnel mines, which have four ports on top of their main bodies through which spring-loaded trip wires are fired after the mine activates. The tops of the BLU-91s are flat. Gator mine cluster munitions are typically loaded with some amount of both types of mine, but types containing only BLU-91s have at least been tested in the past.
The distinction is important. While the U.S. is not a signatory to the international treaty known as the Ottawa Convention which banned the application or storage of anti-personnel landmines, it does not allow the use of them. There are no such preclusions against anti-tank mines.
It remains to be seen whether the mines, if truly dropped by the U.S., are an isolated incident or part of a broader campaign as Epic Fury drags into a second month. However, deploying an area denial capability like air-dropped anti-tank mines in places where the missiles are known to be stored and around known launch points could prove to be an effective measure in trying to stop Iran’s barrages from continuing.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
Hellfire Missile Launcher Tucked Inside A Container Rolled Out By Lockheed
Lockheed Martin has developed a launcher called Grizzly that fires AGM-114 Hellfire missiles from within an otherwise unassuming 10-foot shipping container. Employed alone or in groups networked together, Grizzly presents a flexible and relatively low-cost means of bolstering point defenses against aerial threats, including drones, and targets on the surface. The launchers can also hide in plain sight, intermixed with regular containers, creating targeting dilemmas and uncertainty for opponents.
Grizzly has already successfully completed two live-fire tests, according to a press release Lockheed Martin put out today. The launcher took just six months to build, and makes heavy use of existing and often commercial off-the-shelf components. This includes leveraging the proven M299 four-rail launcher, which is in widespread use globally today, most commonly as a means for launching Hellfires from various types of helicopters.
In “one test we launched missiles vertically,” Chris Murphy, senior manager of Business Development for Integrated Air and Missile Defense Advanced Programs, told TWZ and other outlets during a call yesterday. “In another test, we launched them at an angle to prove out some of the flexibility of the system.”
The container itself has a roof that hinges open for firing. Lockheed Martin says the containerized launcher can be configured to be self-powered or make use of a tertiary power source.
Broadly speaking, “you might think of a depth of magazine as being a really large magazine,” Murphy explained. “Another way to achieve depth of magazine is to have several launchers. What we’ve tried to do is take a lot of the cost out of those launchers and use containers where possible.”
“The idea is that you can leave these somewhat unattended,” he continued. “Obviously, they would be in proximity to some support, but as opposed to having a full-on launcher sitting out someplace or moving around someplace, you’ll just have some ideas to have some containers available. And they protect the system from weather, but they also then allow rapid access and also rapid reload when the time comes. “
“The idea is to provide these [Grizzly container launchers] in multiple places and to… make the enemy uncertain of what is where,” Murphy added. “By using commercial materials and commercial launchers, it’s not obvious where you have protection capability, and it allows you to spread the protection out geographically. It allows it to be remotely operated.”
In general, containerized launchers are also inherently mobile and readily deployable via truck, as well as by cargo aircraft and ships. They also offer opportunities to be employed from any vessel with sufficient deck space, which we will come back to later on.
Lockheed Martin’s press release today otherwise says that Grizzly is “command and control and sensor agnostic” and can be utilized to “support any service or mission, anywhere.”
That being said, the fact that the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Advanced Programs division led the development of Grizzly points to a clear surface-to-air application for the launcher. The millimeter-wave radar-guided AGM-114L variant of the Hellfire has a demonstrated anti-air capability against various types of drones, which is a particular pressing threat. Loaded with AGM-114Ls and linked to air search radars and other sensors, the containerized launch system could offer a way to rapidly boost air defenses, especially at forward locations.
The current conflict with Iran provides a number of real-world instances where this could be valuable. In particular, Iranian-backed militias have launched repeated drone attacks on the U.S. Embassy complex in Baghdad, Iraq. In line with the remote operation concept Lockheed Martin’s Murphy outlined, Grizzly launchers could be placed around the outer edge of the larger Green Zone in Baghdad, creating an outer layer of close-in defense.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is currently protected by Centurion counter-rocket, artillery, mortar (C-RAM) systems linked to Saab Giraffe-1X radars, as well as microwave counter-drone radars and other sensors, all of which Grizzly could also leverage. The Centurion is a ground-based version of the Phalanx Close-in Weapon System (CIWS) used on warships.
Grizzly could be used to fire AGM-114Ls, along with laser-guided Hellfire variants, at targets on land or at sea. The picture Lockheed Martin included in its press release today notably shows the launcher firing a laser-guided Hellfire vertically during a test. As an aside, several countries already have or are developing ground-based launch systems for Hellfire that are designed to be employed in the coastal defense role against landing craft and amphibious vehicles. With assistance from the United Kingdom, Ukraine’s armed forces have also fielded a launch system for the Hellfire-derived Brimstone missiles concealed inside civilian-style trucks that has been used for more general surface-to-surface attacks.
The video below includes clips of a Hellfire launcher concealed inside a typical civilian truck now in development in Taiwan for coastal defense applications.
《國防線上-國防自主軍備研製》打造更堅韌有力的防衛力量
As noted, Grizzly has the potential to be employed from ships and locations on land in any role. Purpose-built launchers for the AGM-114L are already integrated onto some of the U.S. Navy’s Freedom and Independence class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) to provide extra protection against drones and swarms of small boats.
USS Detroit (LCS 7) Successful Missile Test Firing
“The idea behind Grizzly was for it to be a low-cost approach, and we believe that it’s appropriate for multiple customers,” Lockheed Martin’s Murphy said yesterday in response to a question about using the launcher in this domain. “The maritime environment may pose some challenges that you might have to rethink a couple of things, but the general concept is valid.”
Hellfire might not be the only missile Grizzly can fire, either. Murphy said that the launcher was designed to allow for the ready integration of additional functionality, including other missiles, down the line “without having to change much of anything.” One obvious candidate would be the AGM-179A Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM), which is derived from the AGM-114R and can already be fired from many of the same launchers, including the M299. Conceivably, the overall concept could be expanded to a launch system in a larger container with more total missiles.
Containerized systems, in general, present particular benefits for expeditionary or distributed operations. Launchers like Grizzly could be particularly relevant for supporting operations in forward areas across the broad expanses of the Pacific during a future major conflict with China. As mentioned, having the additional benefit of being able to deploy them discreetly presents challenges for opponents.
“I think, again, it aligns to our ability to operate in multiple domains,” U.S. Army Gen. Ronald Clark, head of U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC), said in response to a general question about containerized launch capabilities at an event last year that the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington, D.C. “Our ability to target our adversaries at scale and our ability to be able to be literally ubiquitous with boxes of rockets at different places, that look like boxes of something else, really gives our adversary pause, because it’s in real time providing deterrence.”
Lockheed Martin has also touted Grizzly simply as an example of its ability to rapidly produce a working prototype system, which could then be produced and fielded on at least a limited level without necessarily having to commit to large-scale production.
“There are many instances where you can develop a prototype, such as this Grizzly launcher, and maybe you only need a few of them, but maybe you need a couple 100. Those are still not numbers that you come up with – that you would come up with for a large-scale production line,” Lockheed Martin’s Murphy said. “We’ve got a couple other programs that we’re working through the same approach and are proving to ourselves and proving to our customers that this is a very good intermediate step between one or two prototypes versus dozens, or maybe even hundreds of early capability products, until you get to the point where you think that you’re ready for let’s go ahead and have a full-scale, full-rate production.”
Grizzly, in its current form, certainly offers potential anti-air and other capabilities that could be of interest across the U.S. military, as well as to foreign customers, especially armed forces that already have Hellfire variants in inventory.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com
Rio and Kate Ferdinand flee £6.5m mansion in Dubai for Portugal after sleeping in basement amid missile strikes
RIO and Kate Ferdinand have fled Dubai for their holiday home in Portugal after being left “scared” by missile strikes on the UAE.
Former Towie star Kate, 34, relocated to the celeb favourite hotspot last year with her hubby and football pundit, Rio, 47, and was one of countless Brits caught up in the conflict.
Previously, she told how the family had been forced to sleep in their basement after Iran launched a barrage of rockets at nations across the Middle East.
In the terrifying situation, which is still ongoing, Iran vowed revenge for the US and Israel’s huge blitz on the regime.
Now the celebrity couple and their children Cree, five, and Shae, two, and Rio’s 14-year-old daughter, Tia, from his first marriage, have headed to their European retreat.
Former Manchester United player Rio has uploaded a snap showing him swigging a Super Bock beer in the surroundings of their Portugal home.
In his caption he referred to the weekend’s football scores and wrote: “That feeling when Liverpool + Chelsea drop points in the race for the top 4!
“Happy Saturday People!”
He sat against the white walled terrace of the stunning villa in the Algarve near Quinta do Lago, with bright sunshine and trees in the background.
Liverpool had lost at Brighton 2-1 while Chelsea suffered a 3-0 hammering at Everton.
Kate has not addressed the location change on her social media, with the most recent upload being a clip from her Blended podcast.
Previously, on her show, she had opened up on the family’s actions amid the missile strikes.
As the United Arab Emirate’s top holiday hot spot, Dubai has become a sought after travel destination for celebrities and influencers.
Kate previously told her fans they spent “a very scary night” sleeping in their basement.
“Thank you for all of your messages and sorry for the silence, I haven’t wanted to worry you all I just haven’t been able to find the words. We are safe,” she said on Instagram.
“The government are doing an amazing job of keeping it that way and despite my nerves I feel we are in very safe hands.”
She added: “We are hoping for a calmer evening tonight, last night was very scary. Although Cree and Shae loved it as they couldn’t believe we all got a sleepover in the basement.
“Thank you for all of your prayers, this whole experience is very eye-opening and I am praying for anyone affected. Lots of love to everyone.”
Rio’s sons Lorenz, 19, and Tate, 17, did not move over when they relocated from the UK last year to focus on their football careers.
Previously, Rio also admitted he had been “scared” when the pair were trapped in Dubai during the Covid-like lockdown.
Speaking on his show Rio Ferdinand Presents, the former Manchester United and England defender said: “Been a different week for me, not going to lie.
“Firstly, I’m in great condition this morning as the whole family did a workout.
“A bit like in Covid, the whole family is doing things we wouldn’t usually be doing together.
“Home-schooling a bit today.
“It’s frightening when you hear missiles, planes and fighter jets – I don’t know what it is – going above us, and you’re hearing big bombs, and what that is we don’t know as we don’t know the details of what they are.
“It’s telling your kids what it is and helping them navigate through this moment, which is important especially as the dad of the house.
“You want to try and remain calm and keep everybody as calm as possible.”
Ferdinand added: “I’ve got to be honest guys, it’s been a bit of a scary situation.”
Moment missile strikes shortly after Israeli president’s visit | Hezbollah
Israeli President Isaac Herzog was forced to take cover as a missile struck nearby shortly after he gave a press conference in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. During the speech, Herzog aid Israel cannot return to last year’s ceasefire and must secure “strategic depth inside Lebanon.”
Published On 23 Mar 2026
Aftermath of Iranian missile strikes near Israel’s nuclear facility | US-Israel war on Iran News
Published On 22 Mar 2026
Iranian missiles struck two communities in southern Israel, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in dual attacks not far from Israel’s main nuclear research centre.
The Iranian strikes late on Saturday came after Tehran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz was hit earlier in the day. Israel denied responsibility for the strike on Natanz, nearly 220km (135 miles) southeast of Tehran.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the strike on Natanz, which was also hit during the first week of the war and the 12-day war last June. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said such strikes posed a “real risk of catastrophic disaster throughout the Middle East”.
Iran retaliated hours later.
Israel’s military said it was not able to intercept missiles that hit the southern cities of Dimona and Arad, the largest near the centre in Israel’s sparsely populated Negev desert. It was the first time Iranian missiles had penetrated Israel’s air defence systems in the area around the nuclear site.
The Israeli Ministry of Health said at least 180 people were wounded in the missile attacks on the southern city of Dimona and nearby Arad.
Dimona is about 20km (12 miles) west of the nuclear research centre, and Arad is around 35km (22 miles) to the north.
Israel is believed to be the only Middle East nation with nuclear weapons, though its leaders refuse to confirm or deny their existence. The UN nuclear watchdog said on X it had not received reports of damage to the Israeli centre or abnormal radiation levels.
Drone footage shows damage in Arad after overnight Iranian missile attack | Newsfeed
Drone footage shows heavy damage to residential buildings in Arad, Israel, after an overnight Iranian missile strike.
Published On 22 Mar 2026
Trump’s mixed messages on Iran: ‘Winding down’ but adding troops
President Trump frequently contradicts himself, sometimes in the same speech, social media post or even sentence. On Friday, he sent a torrent of mixed signals about the Iran war that raise more questions about the direction of the conflict and his administration’s strategy.
Within a few hours, Trump said he was considering winding down the war, his administration confirmed it was sending more troops to the Middle East and, in an effort to lessen the economic influence on global energy markets, the United States lifted sanctions on some Iranian oil for the first time in decades — relieving some of the pressure that Washington traditionally has used as leverage.
The confusing combination of actions deepens a sense among Trump’s critics that there is no clear, long-term strategy for the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran. Now in its fourth week, the war remains on an unpredictable path and a credible endgame is unclear as the global economy is being roiled.
‘Winding down’ the war
After another rough day in the financial markets, Trump said Friday afternoon on his social media network: “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.”
Trump contended that the U.S. has adequately degraded Iranian naval, missile and industrial capacity and prevented Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The president then suggested the U.S. could pull out of the conflict without stabilizing the Strait of Hormuz, the channel through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply travels. The strait has been ravaged by Iranian missile, drone and mine attacks during the war.
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not!” Trump wrote. But, in another contradiction, he said the U.S. would help if asked, “but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated.”
While oil that traverses the strait is usually bound for Asia and other places rather than North America, the chaos still affects the United States. Oil is bought and sold globally, so a shortage in oil for Asian countries leads to bidding up prices on oil sold to companies in America too.
That fact, coupled with an Israeli strike on Iran’s gas fields and an Iranian retaliation that crippled a major terminal to ship liquefied natural gas from Qatar, helped tank U.S. equity markets Friday, with the S&P dropping 1.5%. There also was a sharp increase in U.S. fuel prices.
More troops to the war zone
Even as Trump said the U.S. was close to winding down the war, his administration announced it was sending three more warships to the Middle East with about 2,500 additional Marines. It was the second time in a week that the administration said it was deploying more forces to the war zone. The military says some 50,000 are supporting the war effort.
Trump has often said he has ruled out sending in ground troops, but not always, and his administration has hinted at a possible deployment of special forces or similar units.
The Marines being sent to the region are an expeditionary unit designed for quick amphibious landings, but their deployment does not mean a ground invasion is certain. Analysts have suggested the presence of U.S. forces on the ground may be needed to ultimately secure the strait.
The surge in troops came just a day after news emerged that the Pentagon was seeking an additional $200 billion from Congress to fund the war. That extraordinarily high figure does not suggest that the war was winding down.
Lifting some sanctions on Iran
The administration said it would lift sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil, provided it was already at sea as of Friday. The move was an attempt to help lower skyrocketing energy prices by allowing freer sale of oil that Iran has let pass through the strait. It also extends a financial lifeline to the Iranian government that Trump is targeting.
His administration has tried other methods to lower oil prices. It has tapped the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve and lifted sanctions on some Russian oil. Yet Brent crude remained at $112 per barrel Friday, and analysts say oil prices are likely to remain high for months regardless of the next steps in the war.
The Iranian oil eventually would have reached another country, but now the United States and its allies can bid on it as well, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X.
“At present, sanctioned Iranian oil is being hoarded by China on the cheap,” Bessent wrote. “By temporarily unlocking this existing supply for the world, the United States will quickly bring approximately 140 million barrels of oil to global markets, expanding the amount of worldwide energy and helping to relieve the temporary pressures on supply caused by Iran.”
While 140 million barrels may seem like a lot, that is only a couple of days’ worth of oil on the global market.
Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a U.S. fuel-tracking service, said he does not expect the temporary suspension to have a major influence on gas prices. The de facto closure of the strait has a much greater effect, he said. “Prices will likely still continue to rise so long as the Strait remains silent,” De Haan said.
And the contradictions in the position were obvious in Bessent’s post announcing the move, which labeled Iran “the head of the snake for global terrorism.” He said the administration would take steps to prevent Tehran from cashing in on the sales, but it was unclear how that would be done.
Even among some Republicans, the contradictions triggered rare public skepticism.
“Bombing Iran with one hand and buying Iran oil with the other,” South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace posted on X on Saturday.
Riccardi writes for the Associated Press. AP business writer Dee-Ann Durbin in Ann Arbor, Mich., contributed to this report.
Videos show Iranian missile fragments impacting northern Israel | US-Israel war on Iran
Videos published by local Israeli platforms show Iranian missile fragments making impact in northern Israel.
Published On 20 Mar 2026
Palestinians bury four women killed in Iranian missile attack | US-Israel war on Iran
“It’s not our war.” A small occupied West Bank community has buried four women killed in a hair salon during an Iranian missile attack meant for Israel.
Published On 20 Mar 2026
Smoke rises after Iranian missile attack on Israel oil refinery in Haifa | Oil and Gas
An Iranian missile struck an oil refinery in the Israel city of Haifa. The plant produces half of Israel’s domestic fuel supplies. Power was briefly disrupted before being restored, with no casualties reported. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it targeted refineries and military sites in the attack.
Published On 19 Mar 2026
U.S. Used Its New 5,000-Pound Bunker Busters To Hit Iranian Anti-Ship Missile Sites: Reports
The U.S. Air Force is now reportedly dropping its newest bunker-buster bomb, the 5,000-pound class GBU-72/B, on targets in Iran. The bombs are said to have been used in strikes on hardened Iranian anti-ship cruise missile sites along the highly strategic Strait of Hormuz overnight.
There are also reports that this is the first time GBU-72/Bs have been used in combat, but it is not clear if this is the case.
“Hours ago, U.S. forces successfully employed multiple 5,000-pound deep penetrator munitions on hardened Iranian missile sites along Iran’s coastline near the Strait of Hormuz,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) wrote in a post on X, which did not name the munitions in question, last night. “The Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles in these sites posed a risk to international shipping in the strait.”
“US official confirms this was the GBU-72 Advanced 5K Penetrator,” CNN‘s Haley Britzky subsequently wrote on X. Fox News has also now reported the use of GBU-72/Bs in last night’s strikes.
Whether or not the GBU-72/B has been employed in combat previously is unclear. In 2024, CBS News reported that the Air Force had employed the bombs in strikes on an underground facility belonging to Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, citing unnamed officials. Fox News also reported again just today that the A5K’s first use had come during previous strikes on the Houthis.
There have also been reports in the past that Israel has at least sought to acquire GBU-72/B, but whether any have been delivered to that country is unknown. It is also still not known what munitions were used in strikes that left three very large and precise holes on the top of a site long linked to Iran’s nuclear program last week. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said they struck that facility, but that does not automatically mean that U.S. forces did not do so, as well.
When reached by TWZ, CENTCOM declined to comment on the specific munitions used in last night’s strikes along the Strait of Hormuz.
The GBU-72/B was developed to replace the older GBU-28/B, which first entered service in 1991. The GBU-28/B is another 5,000-pound class bunker buster, and it is unclear to what degree it remains in U.S. inventory.
What aircraft are currently cleared to employ the GBU-72/B operationally is also not clear. In 2021, the Air Force announced the successful release of an A5K from an F-15E Strike Eagle in testing. In 2024, pictures emerged of a B-1 bomber carrying one of the bombs on an external pylon under the forward fuselage in another apparent test. The Air Force has also raised the possibility of integrating the GBU-72/B onto the B-2 bomber in the past. F-15Es, B-1s, and B-2s are among the aircraft the U.S. military has been using to carry out strikes on targets in Iran.
In terms of the bomb itself, the A5K combines a BLU-138/B penetrating warhead with a tail kit containing a GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) guidance system. The tail kit is a variant of the one used on 2,000-pound class Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) precision guided bombs. Markings seen on live BLU-138/Bs in imagery the Air Force has previously released show that each warhead weighs around 4,422 pounds, with approximately 1,066.8 pounds of that being a combination of PBXN-109 and AFX-757 explosives. As an aside, those are the same two types of explosives used in the much larger 30,000-pound class BLU-127/B warhead for the GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb.
“With enhanced survivability, increased lethality, smart fuzing and utilization of fielded JDAM Navigation tailkits, the GBU-72 significantly improved performance reducing the number of weapons required to achieve a kill at lower AUR [all-up-round] cost,” according to Air Force budget documents. “A5K will replace the GBU-28.”
While the precise capabilities of the Air Force’s various bunker-busting munitions are a closely guarded secret, the original GBU-28/B bomb reportedly had the ability to penetrate through more than 150 feet of earth and at least 15 feet of reinforced concrete. In some cases, multiple bunker busters can also be dropped on the same aim point in succession to help burrow deeper down to the desired depth.
In addition, the GBU-72/B, like the GBU-28/B before it, offers a conventional bunker-buster capability that sits between bombs that use 2,000-pound class BLU-109/B warheads and the MOP. GBU-31/B JDAMs with BLU-109 warheads are already known to be in very active use in strikes on targets in Iran.
With all this in mind, the GBU-72/B does offer the U.S. military a way to get after deeply buried or otherwise hardened targets in Iran (and anywhere else) that are beyond the reach of the BLU-109/B without having to use GBU-57/Bs. The MOP inventory is understood to be relatively small and largely reserved for use against very high-priority targets. Using GBU-72/Bs could also help ensure the destruction of a target, and do so with a smaller number of total munitions, compared to a strike employing 2,000-pound-class bunker busters.
Regardless of the munitions used, U.S. strikes targeting Iranian anti-ship cruise missile sites on the edge of the Strait of Hormuz speak to efforts now to reopen that critical waterway to regular maritime traffic. So far, we have not seen any clear evidence of Iran using its arsenal of thousands of anti-ship cruise missiles, which could turn the Strait into a super weapons engagement zone. Many of these missiles can also be launched from the backs of trucks that are hard to distinguish from civilian types.
Iranian aerial drone, missile, and uncrewed boat attacks, as well as the threat of naval mines, have already brought movement through the Strait to a virtual standstill. A small number of commercial vessels have continued making the transit, but very likely only with the approval of the regime in Tehran. This is already having massive negative impacts on global energy markets, as well as the overall economies of Gulf Arab States.
The U.S. military has been exploring options for escorting convoys of commercial ships through the Strait, but this would still come with significant risks, as TWZ has explored in the past. U.S. President Donald Trump had initially appealed to allies and partners for help, but said yesterday that no assistance was necessary after receiving public rebukes from several countries.
“I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what’s left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don’t, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’ [sic],” Trump wrote today in a post on his Truth Social site. “That would get some of our non-responsive ‘Allies’ in gear, and fast!!!”
A further uptick in strikes on Iranian targets along the Strait of Hormuz, including deeply buried and hardened sites that could necessitate the use of GBU-72/Bs, may now be on the horizon.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
Three women killed in occupied West Bank missile attack | US-Israel war on Iran
Three women in an occupied West Bank hair salon became the first Palestinian deaths of the US-Israeli war on Iran when they were hit by falling material.
Published On 19 Mar 2026
Qatar says Iran missile attack sparks fire, causes damage at gas facility | US-Israel war on Iran News
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemns attack that caused “extensive damage” at the Ras Laffan complex.
Published On 18 Mar 2026
Qatar’s Ministry of Interior says civil defence teams are responding to a fire at the country’s main gas facility after an Iranian attack.
In a statement on Wednesday, QatarEnergy said there was “extensive damage” following the “missile attacks” on Ras Laffan Industrial City.
“All personnel have been accounted for and no casualties have been reported at this time,” the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer added.
The announcements came hours after Iran threatened to attack oil and gas facilities across the Gulf region in retaliation for an Israeli attacks on its South Pars gasfield as the fallout from the United States-Israeli war on the country continues to escalate.
Iran’s warning was directed at Qatar’s Mesaieed Petrochemical Complex, Mesaieed Holding Company and Ras Laffan Refinery; Saudi Arabia’s Samref Refinery and Jubail Petrochemical Complex; and the United Arab Emirates’s Al Hosn Gas Field.
In a statement, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned “the brutal” Iranian targeting of Ras Laffan Industrial City.
“Qatar considers this assault a dangerous escalation, a flagrant violation of its sovereignty, and a direct threat to its national security,” it said.
On March 2, Qatar suspended LNG production following an attack on at its giant Ras Laffan facility, as well as on a water tank at a power plant in Mesaieed Industrial City.