Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has used newly released footage from its underground Iran 'missile city' to claim it holds an 'enormous' stockpile of naval suicide drones and other weapons, which commanders say could be deployed to shut the Strait of Hormuz and hit targets across the region.
The video, broadcast on Iranian state media and attributed to the IRGC Navy, was released on Thursday, although officials did not say when it was filmed.
Inside Iran Missile City: Suicide Drone Boats And Hidden Arsenals
The video from Iran missile city purports to show long underground tunnels packed with unmanned surface vessels, anti-ship missiles and naval mines, some of which are shown being readied and fired. One image described in the report shows a naval drone boat on a trailer in a tunnel, beneath a portrait of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran's naval suicide drones, also known as unmanned surface vehicles or USVs, have already been blamed for attacks on commercial shipping. It is reported they were responsible for strikes on two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.
USVs operate either on or just below the surface of the water and are packed with explosives for what are effectively kamikaze missions. They are particularly difficult to defend against, especially after dark, because many of the tools developed to detect and stop aerial drones do not transfer neatly to waterborne threats.
Naval Drones Reshape Gulf Warfare
On 1 March, according to the report, a crude oil tanker 44 miles off the coast of Oman was hit by a drone, killing one crew member.
Days later, the Bahamas-flagged tanker Sonangol Namibe was struck near Iraq's Khor al Zubair port.
Iranian-made USVs are also said to have been used by Yemen's Houthi rebels against trade vessels in the Red Sea, and unmanned boats have been used by Ukraine against Russian forces.
The Full Terrifying Array Of Weaponry On Display
The report cites a study by UK-based security and defence analysts Westland Advisory, which argues that USVs are a particularly awkward problem for navies because existing radio-frequency detection, geolocation and jamming techniques for aerial drones are not always effective at sea level.
The same study suggests possible countermeasures such as more advanced radar and sonar to spot small surface targets, improved capabilities to intercept or jam USV communications, and the deployment of autonomous underwater vehicles tasked with neutralising the drones before they reach their targets.
Alongside the suicide boats, the Iran missile city footage reportedly flaunts a wider arsenal. Experts identified various systems to CNN including Abadil-2 and Abadil-3 'kamikaze' drones on rail launchers; Shahed-136 drones adapted for naval use; Zolfaqar explosive-laden boats designed to swarm larger vessels.
Moreover, other identified in the arsenal are Ghadir, Nasr-1 and Khalij Fars anti-ship cruise and quasi-ballistic missiles; and multiple types of sea mines such as Maham and Sadaf-02, some of which can be laid from ordinary-looking dhows or fast boats.
Brigadier General Ali Fadavi, deputy commander of the IRGC, told state television on Wednesday, 'We have missiles that are fired from underwater, and their speed is 100 meters per second, and we may use them in the coming days.'
Threats From Iran Missile City To The Gulf And Beyond
Iranian officials framed the Iran missile city arsenal as a tool to inflict severe economic and military damage if Western strikes continue. The regime has threatened to cripple the global economy and drive oil prices to as high as $200 (£151) barrel by using its weapons to close or disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important energy chokepoints.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf offered one of the starkest warnings. 'Any aggression against soil of Iranian islands will shatter all restraint. We will abandon all restraint and make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders,' he said, according to the report.
This is not the first time Iran has showcased the facility. In January and February 2025, according to independent Kurdish outlet Channel 8 at the time, the IRGC held a series of major 'unveilings', including what it called a 'strategic missile base' on the Gulf Coast.
The earliest documented mention of Iran's missile city in the article dates back to March 2021, when the IRGC released footage showing rows of anti-ship missiles and electronic warfare equipment, reported then by the Jerusalem Post.
FBI Intelligence Iran's Brutal Retaliation Plan Targeting US West Coast
An FBI memo has raised concerns about a separate Iranian 'revenge' plot involving drones launched from an unidentified vessel off the United States West Coast, including California. The memo, as described, said the bureau had intelligence that drones could be used to strike targets from such a platform, although no specific timelines or locations were provided.
Earlier, Brett Velicovich, a former US Army intelligence and special operations soldier who helped run armed drone operations against ISIS and other groups before founding his own drone company, said Iran has all the ingredients it needs to turn such a plan into reality.
He argued that Iranian forces already possess 'thousands' of attack drones that can be operated from far away, fly hundreds of miles and hit targets with a level of accuracy that would once have required manned aircraft. These are not hobbyist quadcopters but what he described as 'long-range, one-way attack drones that are extremely capable and can be sent in swarms'.
'We're extremely vulnerable to drone attacks,' he said. 'We're not prepared for this.'
