Iran Hit US Radars First, Then Hangars and Troop Housing: Satellite Images Reveal Damage Across 26 Bases

WASHINGTON — Iran's retaliation against U.S. forces in the Middle East started with the radar and early-warning systems that let the American military see incoming attacks. Strikes then widened to aircraft, hangars, warehouses and the buildings where troops live, according to two independent analyses of satellite imagery released in the past several days.

The Associated Press reported on Oct. 31 that more than 115 drone and missile strikes claimed by Iran or Iranian-backed militias damaged or destroyed structures at 26 military bases and other sites holding U.S. equipment through August. The AP verified the damage using imagery from several satellite providers and interviews with four regional officials who had been briefed on the attacks or had firsthand knowledge of them.

A separate Wall Street Journal investigation, which drew on satellite imagery, Iranian military statements and interviews with U.S. officials, identified 274 damaged structures at 24 installations with a U.S. military presence during the war's first six months. The Journal found that Iran increasingly targeted buildings where American troops live and sleep, showing an improved ability to sequence its attacks and hit targets precisely.

Radars were the first targets

The pattern began in the opening days of the war, which started with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28.

Within the first two days, Iranian strikes destroyed the protective enclosures around U.S. radar systems at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and at Naval Support Activity Bahrain. Iran also hit portable radars at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia and Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

The radar hit in Jordan was reported destroyed. According to its manufacturer, Raytheon, it was one of only 13 such systems the U.S. Army has worldwide, and budget documents put the cost of each at about half a billion dollars. A radar in Qatar, which the Gulf country bought in a $1.1 billion deal in 2013, was heavily damaged, though the AP could not determine whether it was destroyed.

N.R. Jenzen-Jones, director of the consulting firm Armament Research Services, told the AP that Iran went after the backbone of the U.S. air defense network. He said it focused on early-warning radars that are difficult and expensive to repair or replace, likely to weaken the ability of the U.S. and its allies to respond to later strikes.

Iran kept hitting radar sites months into the war. An early-warning radar facility on Jabal ad Dukhan, Bahrain's highest point, was struck by an Iranian ballistic missile on June 11.

Then aircraft and troop facilities

Once the radars were hit, Iran carried out more than 50 successful strikes on 18 locations with U.S. military equipment in the war's first month, concentrating on sites where aircraft were based.

A March strike on Prince Sultan Air Base damaged the rear of a Boeing E-3 Sentry surveillance aircraft, and a regional military official said the same attack damaged several other aircraft, including two aerial refueling tankers. A Congressional Research Service report updated in October said 15 U.S. aircraft had been damaged at bases in the region.

In the United Arab Emirates, Al Dhafra Air Base, about 20 miles south of Abu Dhabi, was hit frequently early in the war. A regional military official reported damage to hangars, surveillance drones and an early-warning radar system there.

Kuwait took the most attacks. Ali Al Salem Air Base was struck at least 30 times, damaging or destroying at least 15 aircraft hangars, many warehouses and 10 buildings near a residential area. At Camp Buehring, which had few aircraft, the attacks fell more heavily on places where troops gather. The base gym was destroyed in March, and the on-base store was hit in late July.

Bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. The AP found that between April 1 and June 30, Iranian strikes damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures on U.S. bases.

Casualties

The deadliest known attack on U.S. troops in the war took place on March 1, when a drone strike at Port Shuaiba in Kuwait killed six soldiers.

On July 17, a missile strike on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan killed three American soldiers. The Journal later reported, citing U.S. officials, that Iran had obtained high-resolution satellite imagery of the base from Chinese sources before the attack. Beijing denied the allegation and asked for evidence. A White House official told the newspaper that no outside help had meaningfully improved Iran's ability to attack the United States.

More than 20 U.S. service members have died in war-related activity since Feb. 28, according to Defense Department data cited by the Journal. More than 400 were wounded before a temporary ceasefire collapsed in July. After that, the government stopped publishing casualty figures specific to the conflict.

Cost estimates

Neither analysis puts an exact figure on the damage. The AP described billions of dollars in equipment losses. U.S. officials told the Journal the Pentagon has estimated the damage to bases at no less than $5 billion, and another person briefed on the costs said the total could reach $15 billion.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, which reviewed the Journal's findings, estimated that rebuilding the damaged structures alone would cost more than $4 billion, not counting the equipment inside them. The war's overall cost was $47.1 billion as of Oct. 16, according to a document viewed by the Journal.

US posture changes

The damage has changed the U.S. military presence in the Gulf. Two regional officials told the AP that Washington has moved many assets out of the Persian Gulf, and one said those include aircraft, air defense systems and communications equipment.

The full extent of the damage has been hard to see from outside. Major satellite providers with U.S. government contracts blocked or delayed public release of imagery at the request of U.S. officials, who sometimes cited national security concerns. At Camp Buehring, high-quality images were not available from March until late August, and during that period more than 30 structures on the base were damaged or destroyed.

U.S. Central Command declined to comment, as it usually does, citing operational security. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that U.S. "forces and bases are well protected and America's military is stronger than ever."

Raphael Cohen, director of the National Security Program at the RAND School of Public Policy, said modern warfare leaves every military exposed to large numbers of cheap drones, and that the era of relying on fixed bases as during the war on terrorism has ended. "This should be a wake-up call for the United States," he told the AP.

Risk of more fighting

The findings were published as tensions rise again. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. will not launch new attacks on Iran until after Tuesday's midterm elections, and Iranian officials have warned that any renewed strikes would bring major retaliation.

On Monday, U.S. forces carried out what officials described as limited defensive strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, while peace talks mediated by Qatar remain stalled.

If fighting resumes, U.S. bases could suffer further costly damage. That would also make it less certain whether Washington chooses to rebuild its regional bases once the war ends.