Israel targets Iranian ballistic missile launchers and infrastructure

The Israeli military focused on targeting Iran’s ballistic missile program, including launchers, in the opening days of the conflict between Israel and Iran. Iran has responded to Israel’s attacks, which began on June 13, by firing more than 370 ballistic missiles at Israel in the first four days of the war. However, the number of missiles Iran has fired per day has declined.

Iran launched more than 100 missiles at Israel over the first day of the war between June 13 and June 14. By the night of June 15–16, Iran launched around 65 missiles at Israel, illustrating the decline in the number of launches per night. Iran generally launches several salvos of missiles each evening.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attributes the reduction in launches to the success of the air campaign against Iran. The Israel Air Force (IAF) controls the airspace over Tehran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli pilots on June 16. This dominance enabled the IAF to strike 20 ballistic missiles before they could be launched on the night of June 15–16. The IDF used 50 aircraft in the overnight missions.

The IDF said it had destroyed a third of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers by the fourth day of the war, June 16, stating it had hit 120 launchers. Later the same day, the IDF added that it had targeted several trucks carrying ballistic missile launchers. The Israel Air Force continued to focus on the launchers throughout June 16, and the IDF announced it had hit “surface-to-surface missile infrastructure in western Iran.”

The Israeli military has also struck trucks that it says are “smuggling missiles” to Tehran. On June 16, the IDF said that “since morning, the IAF identified several trucks containing weapons, including trucks transporting surface-to-air missile launchers, advancing from western Iran toward Tehran, while attempting to escape IDF strikes.”

The campaign against Iran’s ballistic missile program began on the first day of the war. Of the 150 targets struck between June 13 and the morning of June 14, the IDF stated that 40 of them were missile-related or linked to Iran’s air defenses. Iran may have begun the war with 1,000–2,000 ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel. Its ballistic missile program consists of missiles, launchers, fuel, and the components used to manufacture the weapons.

On June 14, the IDF said it had struck a site near Khorramabad in western Iran. “This facility contained launch shafts and dozens of missiles stored in underground tunnels.” In a related strike, the IDF hit an underground site that had “storage tunnels” for missiles, as well as “launch sites.”

On June 15, Israeli forces conducted various strikes aimed at weakening Iran’s missile production capabilities, the IDF said. It hit a site that Iran used to produce fuel, as well as a planetary mixer employed for making engines for the missiles. The IDF had also struck planetary mixers in a strike on Iran in October 2024. Up to 60 ballistic missiles were hit between June 14 and June 15, according to the IDF.

The Israeli military has also eliminated Iranian drone threats. IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin said on June 16 that the IDF had prevented numerous Iranian drones from being launched. In addition, he said that “dozens” of Iranian drones were intercepted between June 15 and June 16.

Some drones were intercepted by Barak long-range air defense systems aboard Israeli Sa’ar 6 missile ships, which can intercept targets up to 70 kilometers, according to reports. The Israeli Navy intercepted eight drones between June 15 and 16, adding to the 100 drones the IDF said it had already intercepted by June 15.

Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDD’s Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel’s Battle for Security in Gaza (2024).