Iran strikes on US bases first took out early-warning systems before hitting aircraft and buildings, AP analysis finds
An Associated Press analysis of satellite imagery and interviews with regional officials has found that Iranian strikes on more than two dozen US bases in the Middle East deliberately targeted early-warning systems first, causing billions of dollars in equipment damage.
Iranian strikes on more than two dozen US military bases across the Middle East deliberately targeted early-warning systems before hitting aircraft and buildings, causing billions of dollars in equipment damage, according to a new analysis by the Associated Press. The findings offer the most detailed picture yet of the damage inflicted during the eight-month war between Iran and the United States and Israel.
The AP says it independently verified damage to American targets using satellite imagery from multiple providers and spoke to four regional officials who were briefed on what was hit or had firsthand knowledge of the strikes. Its review found that more than 115 drone and missile strikes claimed by Iran or Iranian-backed militias damaged or destroyed structures on 26 military bases and other sites holding US equipment.
The pattern the analysis describes is methodical. Iran first destroyed enclosures protecting US radar systems at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and Naval Support Activity Bahrain within the first two days of the war, which began with a joint US-Israeli attack in February. By knocking out the systems designed to detect incoming strikes, Iran cleared the way for follow-up attacks on warehouses, aircraft, troop housing and hangars.
Among the sites examined was Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where satellite imagery from May showed a destroyed facility, and Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, where months of strikes destroyed numerous facilities by late July. From April to June alone, the AP found, Iranian strikes damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and other structures on US bases across the region.
The scale of the damage matters because the Trump administration and the US military have provided few details about the toll of the conflict on people and equipment, and have at times taken steps that impede outside review, such as delaying the release of satellite images. The AP's assessment therefore provides one of the only overall snapshots of what the war has cost American forces in the region.
The analysis also raises pointed questions about American defences. If early-warning and air defence systems could be taken out in the opening days of the war, US bases across the Gulf were left more exposed than Washington has publicly acknowledged. That vulnerability is now central to the debate in Washington over whether to launch new strikes on Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections.
Iran's leadership has shown no sign of backing down. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the armed forces on Saturday to be prepared to respond to any attack with an immediate, impactful and geographically unrestricted response, and said Iran itself would determine when and under what conditions any renewed fighting would end. Senior commanders reported high readiness along the Gulf coast, around the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, and on Iran's northwestern and southeastern borders.
At the same time, diplomatic efforts continue in parallel with the military posturing. Iranian negotiators held talks in Doha with Qatari mediators on Saturday, following more than 12 hours of discussions in Tehran the previous day, as diplomats try to avert new fighting after the midterms. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump has not yet decided whether to launch new strikes, but would prefer to resolve the conflict diplomatically.
The United States has also moved many of its assets out of the Persian Gulf in recent weeks, including aircraft, air defence systems and communications equipment, according to regional officials cited by the AP — a redeployment that reflects both the damage already sustained and the expectation of further escalation.
What happens next may depend less on the diplomacy in Doha than on the calculation in Washington after the elections: whether the damage documented by the AP argues for restraint, because American bases proved vulnerable, or for renewed strikes, because Iran's capabilities must be degraded further. Either way, the analysis has changed the public record of a war whose costs have, until now, been largely hidden from view.
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