US intel says Iran retains significant launch capability, able to ‘wreak havoc’: Report

Tehran escalated its ballistic missile attacks after US officials claimed recently that Washington’s strikes brought Iranian launches down by 90 percent

News Desk

APR 3, 2026

https://thecradle.co/articles/us-intel-says-iran-retains-significant-launch-capability-able-to-wreak-havoc-report

US intelligence assessments have concluded that Iran “maintains significant missile launching capability” despite Washington and Tel Aviv’s attacks across the country, sources told CNN on 3 April.

The informed sources said assessments say “Roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers are still intact and thousands of one-way attack drones remain in Iran’s arsenal despite the daily pounding by US and Israeli strikes against military targets over the past five weeks.”

One of the sources said Iranian forces are “still very much poised to wreak absolute havoc throughout the entire region.”

“The US intelligence assessment total may include launchers that are currently inaccessible, such as those buried underground by strikes but not destroyed,” the report adds. 

CNN also claims 50 percent of Iran’s drone capabilities remain intact. 

US President Donald Trump said this week that US operations in Iran would finish in two to three weeks. 

One of the sources who reviewed the intelligence assessments said this goal was “unrealistic” because a lot “remains on the playing field for Iran to use.”

“We can keep f**king them up, I don’t doubt it, but you’re out of your mind if you think this will be done in two weeks,” the source went on to say.

Sources also pointed to the difficulty in targeting Iran’s deeply entrenched network of ballistic missiles.

“The ability to go underground is a primary reason why launchers have not been further degraded. Iran has long hid its launchers in extensive networks of tunnels and caves, preparing for conflict like this for decades – making them particularly difficult to target. Iran has had success in shooting and moving the mobile platforms, making it difficult to track the launchers, similar to the challenges the US has had with the Houthis in Yemen,” sources explained.

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said recently that Iran’s missile launches were down 90 percent. 

Tehran escalated its strikes in the days that followed. One of Iran’s missiles hit an Israeli drone manufacturing facility near Tel Aviv on Thursday.

Over 2,000 Iranians have been killed by the US and Israel since the start of the war in late February.

The attacks have also damaged more than 90,000 homes and nearly 1,000 schools. Key infrastructure, such as bridges and medical facilities, has also been widely targeted. 

Meanwhile, Tehran has continued to escalate its unprecedented retaliatory campaign of strikes on Israel and US military bases across West Asia.

“Hundreds of US personnel have been killed or injured in the region since the US launched a war on Iran just over a month ago,” The Intercept reported this week. 

Western media reports have confirmed that US bases have suffered severe damage, prompting the military to relocate troops to civilian hotels and office spaces. As a result, Tehran has accused Washington of using human shields.