Updated

The United States has asserted that its military campaign destroyed Iran's ballistic missile capability, a claim examined in analysis published on August 15. A former White House adviser cited in the reporting characterized the assertion as a "pipe dream," arguing that Iran retains significant missile production and launch capacity despite the strikes. The dispute centers on how much of Iran's dispersed and partly underground missile infrastructure could realistically have been eliminated by air attacks, and on the difficulty of verifying battle damage assessments. The question bears directly on Washington's stated war aims and on how long Iran may be able to sustain retaliatory fire.