Iran is accelerating efforts to dig out missiles and munitions
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
April 30, 2026, 6:21 PM EDTBy Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube, Dan De Luce and Monica Alba
WASHINGTON — Iran is taking advantage of the ceasefire with the U.S. to dig out its weapons, according to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the matter. The regime has stepped up its efforts to excavate missiles and other munitions it hid underground or that were buried beneath rubble from U.S. and Israeli airstrikes, they said
The U.S. believes the regime wants to quickly reconstitute its drone and missile capabilities so it could launch attacks across the Middle East if President Donald Trump decides to resume military operations, the sources said.
Trump is set to meet with his national security team Thursday to review options — including new military action — for opening the Strait of Hormuz and stripping Iran of any nuclear material, according to another U.S. official.
The commander of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, was scheduled to brief Trump and members of his national security team about the options, as well as the status of a U.S. blockade, the official said.
Trump is expected to decide on the path in the coming days, according to the first U.S. official.
A White House official said Trump's planned mid-May trip to China, which has ties with Iran, is among the factors contributing to his decision-making process as he weighs options in Iran. His visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which was already postponed once because of the war in Iran, is a "priority," and the White House really does not want to move it again, the official said.
Iran began blocking the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Israel began its bombing campaign on Feb. 28, and the move has sent global oil prices surging. Trump retaliated with a naval blockade of Iranian ports in the strait, having redirected 41 vessels from transiting the strait as of Wednesday, according to Central Command officials. A temporary ceasefire went into effect on April 8 to allow the U.S. and Iran room to negotiate an end to the war and to reopen the strait, but talks have not produced results.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said this month that the U.S. had indications that Iran was trying to reconstitute its military capabilities. "We know what military assets you are moving and where you are moving them to," he said at the Pentagon April 16.
"While you are digging out — which is exactly what you're doing, digging out of bombed-out and devastated facilities — we are only getting stronger," Hegseth said. "You are digging out your remaining launchers and missiles with no ability to replace them."
Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Defense Department pointed to Hegseth's remarks.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that the U.S. military had achieved all of Trump's objectives in the war in Iran, adding: "Iran's ballistic missiles are destroyed, their production facilities are demolished, their navy is sunk, and their proxies are weakened."
"Following this successful military campaign, President Trump has every option at his disposal. However, his preference is always diplomacy, as he instructed American negotiators to work towards a deal that ensures Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon," Kelly said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has suggested the war would be wrapped up by the start of Trump's rescheduled trip to China in May, telling reporters on March 25, "We've always estimated approximately four to six weeks, so you could do the math on that." It's unclear how the ceasefire and the current internal deliberations might affect his timeline.
Iran has maintained that it still has the ability to wage war against the U.S. and protect its interests.
While the White House and the Pentagon have made definitive declarations that Iran's military is all but defeated, U.S. intelligence shows that Iran maintains many of the military capabilities it had before the war started, NBC News reported last week. They include not only many of Iran's ballistic missiles but also more than half of the Iranian air force's aircraft, as well as more than half of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' fleet of naval components, NBC News reported.
The U.S. official and the two people familiar with the matter said Iran has only accelerated efforts to retrieve its missiles and other munitions in recent days as the potential for the war to resume increases with negotiations to end it appearing to have hit an impasse.
Experts and congressional aides have told NBC News that Iran most likely was able to preserve some of its missile arsenal by deploying decoys and dispersing some around the country. And before the war, as the U.S. built up a vast array of military assets in the region, the Iranian regime buried or otherwise concealed the rest of its missiles and launchers, according to the U.S. official and one of the people familiar with the matter.
The U.S. and Israel for weeks bombed Iranian ballistic missile and missile launcher sites, along with an array of other targets. While those strikes have significantly diminished Iran's arsenal, Trump administration officials have said Iran still has those capabilities.
Trump acknowledged Wednesday that Iran maintained some of its missile arsenal.
"They have missiles, about 82% are gone, and they have drones, and most of them are gone," Trump said in the Oval Office.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the interim national security adviser, said Monday that Iran retains half of its arsenal of missiles.
"Inflation is worse, they still have the drought going on, they still have trouble making payroll, their economy's flattened, they face crippling economic sanctions around the world," Rubio said in an interview on Fox News. "All those problems are there and many of them are worse, and now, they have half the missiles, none of the factories, and no navy and no air force. All that's been destroyed, so they're worse off and weaker."
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I wouldn't believe anyone in this Administration if they told me it was Friday without checking a calendar.I mean, we were told this war was over several times now and here we still are. And who would have known a people at war for millenia would understand how to fight asymmetrically against a larger foe? Hegeth should be fired for incompetence and put in a facility for treatment where he can fight his 'holy wars' without hurting others.
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Then why don't you first back up your opinion of Biden's job performance?
I have Jeremy on ignore...
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Very smart thing to do.
So, you're saying that conservatives are just as gullible as Biden supporters. Got it.
You're right, that is their opinion, and one that any objective observer would make. It's certainly not their fault that it doesn't fit with some people's desperate desire to ignore reality and grovel before some gross fat convicted felon and accused pedophile wannabe King. It's not a surprise that servile rightwing conservative Trump sycophants disagree with rational patriotic Americans opinions about them.
To accomplish anything, all the Ayatollahs must be removed.
What are we waiting for? Why let up when victory is close?
There is no way to remove theocracy by bombing.
It would be great if Iran were to experience a regime change and end theocratic rule (if the new regime is better; likely). But I see no way for the USA to make that happen by dropping bombs.
This is how the US & Israel create more enemy terrorists.
This war will not end. Long after troops and equipment have been removed we will still be dealing with terrorists created by this illegal war.
There will never be peace until humans stop defining themselves by ideologies and start working together to make each other's lives better. I don't see that happening in this lifetime.
One ideology working to destroy another in a constant, never ending, battle where each side invokes the same god in righteous wrath. Makes for a great story, but a sad reality.
Religion poisons everything, and the main characters are eternally silent so adherents are free to put words in their mouths to support their own bloodthirsty agendas without consequence.
In a broad general way I disagree. Religion is a tool, and like all tools it's up to the user to use it for good, or for evil. Just as we have milenia of examples of religion used for oppressive agendas, we also have milenia of examples of religion used for beauty and uplifting agendas.
I have problems with people who hide behind their religion to force their ideology on others.... Hypocrites that tell other's to do what they say, not what they themselves do... Those that tell me my lack of faith makes my live less than theirs...
we also have milenia of examples of religion used for beauty and uplifting agendas.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There is such a tiny amount of religiously oriented things that I personally see beauty in that I could easily live without religion entirely. The architecture can be beautiful, but the homelessness and disease outside those doors cancel that extravagance ten times over.
I already do live without religion entirely... okay not entirely. There are too many religious people to ignore it completely. Though you are correct - beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To me the most beautiful things are small and go unnoticed by most. Sometimes beauty can be as small and as simple as a helping hand when someone is at their lowest.
For as many things as I can fault the Salvation Army for, they got me Christmas gifts for my son after my divorce. I've since donated Christmas gifts many times over for other families in need. We could... and should, do this without religion. I'm confident we'll get there eventually.
Sounds a lot like what goes on many social media sites . . . eh?
That is akin to a Muslim asking why not kill all fundamentalist Jews and Christians! To accomplish what you ask regarding Iran's ninety million Muslims would outpace anything the Nazis did to Jews during the Holocaust! I know! I know! Over population, right? Good Grief!
remove the evil dictators that Jimmy Carter let take over and let Iran be a regular free country
Carter wanted the US to be energy independent. It was a nice idea, but Regan & successive Administrations pandered to big business and here we are still subsidizing the uber wealthy.
Carter got things so fouled up, his good ideas didn't have a chance
How in the world do you propose doing that?
Finding out where they are and firing a missile and airstrikes has worked
His good ideas didn't have a chance because the economy was in the shitter. That wasn't Carter's fault, but he didn't articulate the issues well in his 1979 "malaise" speech. it doesn't mean he was wrong. His speech centered on the growing materialism (the very thing Reagan used against him) and self-indulgence and given in a way that made people feel like he was lecturing them. Historians will often say he was right, but ahead of his time.
Reagan used that to his advantage kicking off an era of supply side economics that the US is still suffering for today. Without Reagan there would be no Trump.
They tried that:
Green Revolution 2009
(AKA "The Persian Spring")
Been there, done that. 60 days later we're bogged down in a tit-for-tat standoff. The war has become a master class in petulance.
Israel has already declared it will renew attacks on Iran no matter what is negotiated. From Iran's standpoint the Israeli threat is still real and imminent.
The current unofficial pause (after end of the official ceasefire) has allowed Iran a respite of calm to deal with internal matters, establish alternative trade routes, and prepare for the next phase of Israeli Gazafication.
So he tried to say that the 60 day timeline should also take time off for the pause in operations. Now he's notified Congress that hostilities have terminated. Is this maybe because the 60 day deadline (and the doubt that Congress would authorize any more time) and when it's time to start bombing again he just notifies Congress that this is a "new" campaign with a new 60 day timeline?
I didn't have that on my bingo card.
Related article:
Iranian F-5 Breaks Through Air Defenses to Strike U.S. Base in Kuwait at Start of War
In the early days of the war, an Iranian Air Force F-5 fighter jet struck Camp Buehring in Kuwait – reportedly the first time in many years that a hostile aircraft has hit a U.S. military base.
NBC reported that although air defense systems protected the base, the Iranian pilot managed to evade them and drop a bomb.
The conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) says the damage to U.S. bases and equipment in the Persian Gulf was far more extensive than the Pentagon has publicly acknowledged, with repair costs likely reaching billions of dollars.
AEI estimates that Iran struck more than 100 targets across 11 bases in seven countries: Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
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