Iran missile production ‘crippled,’ regime scrambling with ‘makeshift’ arsenal: defense expert
Iran’s missile production capability has been severely crippled by recent military strikes, a leading defense expert said Thursday, pushing back on reports that Tehran has rebuilt parts of its military infrastructure faster than expected since the ceasefire began.
Draganfly CEO Cameron Chell’s remarks also came as President Donald Trump continued to pause U.S. military action while Iran reviewed Washington’s response to a proposed ceasefire framework.
“I doubt the hypersonic weapons or cruise missiles are being replenished by Iran, and it will not be at any notable speed,” defense expert Chell told Fox News Digital.
“Those are very difficult to build and require sophisticated facilities, most of which would have been already targeted by the United States,” he added.
“Those equipment parts are also much harder to get than other types of equipment.”
While Chell said Iran’s borders are “very porous” and that Iran’s allies are doing everything they can to funnel parts into the country, he said the infrastructure had already been thoroughly destroyed.
“It’s probably more than six months at the very minimum to be able to produce something again,” he said.
“Even then, it would be makeshift and wouldn't be the precision-type weapons that they've had the luxury of building over the last several years in fully equipped facilities that were properly supplied.”
“This would be overt supply and overt manufacturing, all of which would be substandard or subpar,” Chell added.
A report by CNN, citing sources familiar with U.S. intelligence assessments, suggested Iran’s military is reconstituting certain capabilities degraded by U.S.-Israeli strikes much faster than initially estimated.
The report claimed Iran had already restarted some of its weapons production during the six-week ceasefire that began in early April.
“Even just to start to get weapons replenished, it wouldn't be at scale, and the quality of the equipment wouldn't match what they had,” Chell clarified.
“I don't believe those precision missile systems are getting back up into production,” he added.
“Only less sophisticated drones — things like the equivalents of the Shahed 136, the 139, or certainly the Category 1 FPV one-way attributable drones would be able to be replenished and at scale.”
On Thursday, the White House also swiftly dismissed the reports, stating they undermined the “great work of our American troops abroad.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said in a statement: “It is so disgraceful that CNN and others are acting as public relations agents for the Iranian regime in order to paint Operation Epic Fury as anything other than a historic accomplishment. We have had incredible battlefield successes, and yet the fake news media is still trying to undermine the great work of our American troops abroad.”
Posted by Emma Bussey
