Among an array of shifting official goals of the Iran war offered by the US administration, there's one which has remained consistent: President Trump and White House officials have time and again proclaimed that Iran's ballistic missile arsenal is mostly obliterated.
Yet, this very week - as well as the past several weeks - Iran has been intermittently responding to US provocations by unleashing large ballistic missile salvos on some of the Gulf states, but especially Jordan. Here's the NY Times commenting on the latest attack on US bases in Jordan just yesterday:
The Jordanian military said that it had intercepted 18 of the 20 missiles and that two had fallen in unpopulated areas. But the two U.S. officials acknowledged that the base in Azraq, Jordan, was hit.
How then are the Iranians sustaining such large repeat strike waves after US-Israeli attacks supposedly destroyed much of their missile program?
The Arab Weekly/via state mediaFor a very brief trip down memory lane spanning various phases of the six-month long conflict...
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March 9, 2026. President Trump very early in the Operation Epic Fury campaign told Fox News:
"We have sunk all Iranian ships and destroyed most of its missile launch platforms, with only 20% remaining."
April 1, 2026. Roughly a month into the conflict, Trump delivered a formal address outlining the scope of the destruction, claiming the following:
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