IAF switches tactics to hit underground missile launchers

As long as drones remain overhead, every attempt to move a launcher becomes a high‑risk gamble.

By Hezy Laing

The Israeli Air Force’s transition toward loitering attack tactics has reshaped the strategic balance in its long‑running contest with Iran’s missile infrastructure.

At the center of this shift is a deliberate focus on Iran’s underground “missile cities,” vast tunnel networks carved into mountains and designed to protect launch vehicles, command centers, and stockpiles from conventional airstrikes.

For years, these hardened facilities were considered among Iran’s most survivable military assets. The IAF’s new operational approach has begun to erode that assumption.

Rather than relying solely on pre‑planned strikes or rapid penetration raids, the IAF now maintains persistent drone presence over key sectors of western and central Iran.

These loitering platforms, equipped with advanced sensors and precision munitions, are tasked with monitoring tunnel exits, access roads, and launch pads around the clock.

The strategy is simple in concept but demanding in execution: allow Iranian missile crews to expose themselves, then strike immediately before a launch sequence can be completed.

By destroying vehicles as they emerge from tunnels or by collapsing entrances with repeated precision hits, the IAF has turned Iran’s underground complexes from sanctuaries into liabilities.

This method has proven especially effective because it neutralizes the very advantage Iran sought when it invested heavily in subterranean infrastructure.

Missile cities were built to survive the first wave of an air campaign, enabling Iran to fire salvos even after sustaining damage. Loitering attacks undermine that logic by extending the “first wave” indefinitely.

As long as drones remain overhead, every attempt to move a launcher becomes a high‑risk gamble.

Iranian crews have been forced to delay operations, relocate assets, or abandon certain sites altogether, significantly reducing the volume and coordination of missile fire.

The cumulative effect has been a measurable degradation of Iran’s ability to conduct large‑scale, synchronized launches from its mountain‑based facilities.

While Iran retains substantial missile reserves, its capacity to employ them at scale has been constrained by the constant threat of immediate interdiction.

The IAF’s shift to loitering attacks represents not only a tactical innovation but a strategic recalibration, transforming persistent aerial presence into a tool for shaping enemy behavior and limiting escalation.

In doing so, Israel has demonstrated how modern airpower can adapt to the challenges posed by deeply buried, heavily fortified adversary infrastructure.