Bloomberg reported, citing Western officials, that Iran has preserved its missile and drone production despite months of US and Israeli air strikes, a finding the White House disputes.
Iran can still replenish its arsenals because its missile and drone factories came through the bombing largely intact, according to Western officials cited by Bloomberg. The officials said this gives Tehran room to rebuild while President Donald Trump holds off on further strikes ahead of the US midterm elections.
In its report published on 9 October, Bloomberg said its sources were officials familiar with the matter. They asked not to be named because they were discussing private assessments. The claim has not been independently confirmed by a second outlet.
One of the officials said Iran remains "well-stocked" with ballistic missiles and certain anti-ship weapons, and can add to them quickly. Bloomberg said it is not known exactly how many missiles remain.
The report said Israel had estimated that Iran held about 2,500 ballistic missiles before the war. It added that Western intelligence assessments as recently as June put Iran's holdings at about three-quarters of its prewar munitions.
Bloomberg also cited an analysis of public data by Bloomberg Economics. It found that Iran has launched more than 4,000 Shahed drones and at least 2,000 ballistic missiles since the conflict began on 28 February.
A Western official also told Bloomberg that Russia is supplying missiles to Iran, echoing a separate assessment made in June. The claim comes from a single anonymous source and could not be verified further. Russia's Defence Ministry did not respond to Bloomberg's request for comment.
Bloomberg said the assessment runs counter to repeated statements by Trump and his team that about eight months of airstrikes have decimated Iran's ability to threaten US bases and allies. Trump has described Iran's military as "totally destroyed", according to a Bloomberg News report carried by Yahoo.
The White House disputed the findings. Spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that US operations had destroyed Iran's ballistic missiles, production facilities and navy, along with its nuclear sites.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth made a similar case in a speech on 30 September. He said the US had eliminated Iran's military industrial capacity and its entire defence base, according to the same report.
Not all of the assessments cited by Bloomberg point the same way. Jim Lamson, a former CIA analyst and visiting research fellow at King's College London, wrote in a report that the campaign most likely severely degraded much of Iran's prewar missile manufacturing capacity over the long term.
No response from the Iranian government to the Bloomberg report had been reported at the time of writing.
The US-Israeli war with Iran began on 28 February 2026, and Bloomberg describes about eight months of airstrikes. It said Trump pledged on social media on Thursday that he would not attack Iran before the November midterm elections.
Bloomberg described the war as being "in limbo". It said a US Navy blockade of Iran's oil exports is in place and that Iran may lean further into asymmetric warfare.
Becca Wasser, defence lead at Bloomberg Economics, said the lull gives Iran time to recoup and rebuild for a next round of fighting that it knows is coming. That is her assessment rather than a confirmed development.
Bloomberg's evening briefing and a live blog by Newsbeep also mentioned a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.
Photo: Dmitry Terekhov from Odintsovo, Russian Federation / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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