Iran War & Ceasefire — 2026-04-15

Satellite Images Show Iran Excavating Entrances to Underground Missile Bases During Ceasefire

Satellite imagery from Tabriz and Khomein dated April 10 shows Iranian teams using front-end loaders to clear debris from entrances to underground missile bases that were sealed by US-Israeli strikes. CNN reported US intelligence assessed roughly half of Iran's missile launchers remain intact after a month of fighting, many potentially buried underground. The excavation activity during the ceasefire suggests Tehran is racing to restore launch capability before negotiations resume, undermining the military pressure that was supposed to incentivize diplomatic concessions.

Analysis
Tehran is using the ceasefire to reconstitute launch capability rather than de-escalate, and the speed, visible within days and implying pre-positioned engineering assets, suggests Iranian planners anticipated this phase, meaning strike degradation may prove shorter-lived than the pause itself. Each cleared entrance potentially returns multiple launchers to operational status, compressing the restoration timeline. Per CNN's exclusive satellite imagery (sole-source, drawing on unnamed US assessments), active restoration is now a confirmed ongoing operation rather than an assessed possibility. Excavation could alternatively be deterrent maintenance rather than offensive reconstitution, preserving assured-retaliation access as a negotiating posture rather than signaling intent to fire.

1 sources

Images show Iran digging for missile launchers trapped underground - CNN