STRASBOURG, FRANCE - Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday unveiled the country’s largest underground “missile city,” housing thousands of precision-guided projectiles, including some that were reportedly used in the attack on Israel in October.

The unveiling coincides with the start of a new process of negotiations with European countries, US pressure to limit Iran's nuclear and missile programs and force Tehran to engage in talks, as well as deepening tensions in the Middle East, in which Iran is a party.

Over the years, the IRGC has unveiled several missile tunnels as part of a demonstration of their missile and logistical capabilities to defend and attack Iran’s opponents.

The locations of the IRGC's missile cities and tunnels are withheld from the public, and official footage only shows the inside of the complexes, but why is the IRGC propagating them?

The unveiling video shows Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Forces, and Mohammad Bagheri, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, walk through a large tunnel over the Israeli flag to monitor a missile city and test the “readiness of their forces.”

According to media reports close to the IRGC, there are seven types of missiles in the new missile city. Bagheri said that the complex enhances the IRGC’s capabilities for another attack on Israel by dozens of times.

The IRGC carried out two attacks against Israel in 2024, one in April and another in October, launching hundreds of loitering munitions, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles toward Israeli territories.

Iran has long vowed to conduct another attack on Israel.

On Thursday, the Revolutionary Guards held a military parade in the southern and northern ports of the country, with 3,000 warships participating, according to IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency.

“This demonstration shows the capabilities of the naval defense front and carries a message to the Zionist regime,” said IRGC Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri.

On October 26, the Israeli military conducted a series of airstrikes on Iranian military targets in several provinces of the country, in retaliation for the IRGC’s ballistic missile attack days earlier.

International media reports claimed the attack destroyed Iran's surveillance and radar systems and severely damaged Iran's defense capabilities.

Tony Radakin, the British Chief of the Defense Staff, said in December that the attack “took down nearly the entirety of Iran’s air defense system.”

“It has destroyed Iran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles for a year, and left Tehran with a strategic dilemma in how it responds,” he added.

Iranian authorities have repeatedly said that the attack was largely ineffective, but did announce the death of five of its soldiers as a result of the strikes.

Tehran is digging mountains and building large secret tunnels to protect its missile and military programs from attacks. They are built in a way to protect them from advanced missile attacks from rivaling countries such as Israel and the United States.

It is unclear how many missile tunnels the IRGC has. In an interview to state media last month, Hajizadeh said, "If we unveil a missile tunnel each week, we will not be done for the next two years.”

The Revolutionary Guards first revealed the existence of underground missile bases in the fall of 2015, but according to media reports close to the IRGC, the force has built such bases since the Iran-Iraq war.

“Our missile bases are built 500 meters deep, they contain long-range missiles and they are available in all Iranian provinces and cities,” Hajizadeh said in 2015.

In addition to missiles, the IRGC have placed sensitive military equipment, defense equipment, drones and missile production systems in their underground bases.

In the winter of 2019, the IRGC uncovered an underground ballistic missile factory.