Just days ago President Trump told a Republican audience at a rally that Iran "is ready to fold up," and again expressing his belief the war will end "right after the election," though he also said "maybe before the election" - in reference to the midterms.
But Tehran on Monday is seeking to reassert its defiance and military readiness in the wake of Trump threats, announcing that the "enemy's next mistake" is going to "bring new fronts and surprises" - according to state media.
One key development being touted relates to the Islamic Republic's missiles. Not only have Iranian officials in the recent past touted that production never stopped even during active bombing campaigns, but now there's a new push to increase the range of projectiles.
Army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia has said in an interview with Fars that technicians are working on fast increasing the range of the country's missiles.
"In this war we concluded that we must definitely upgrade the range of our missiles, and we have now moved in that direction," Akraminia said. This is in order to keep the "enemy located at greater distance."
The furthest distance the Iranians are believed to have targeted in the conflict is the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean. That distance is something like 2,500 miles.
"The missiles that we used during the war, particularly those used by our ground forces to target enemy bases, which were used in Kuwait, and our naval forces also used naval missiles, or sea-launched missiles, sea cruise missiles, against enemy vessels," he said further.
"These were actually very good and effective missiles, and we have now reached the conclusion that we need to increase their speed and range, because the enemy is located at a greater distance from our forces," the Iranian army spokesman continued. "They are located at a distance of up to 1,000 kilometers, and God willing, we will upgrade them as well."
Since the opening months of Operation Epic Fury, it has become clear that US forces were ordered to dismantle Gulf region bases and move away from the reach of Iranian missiles and drones.
While the US has frequently boasted about destroying Iran's navy, there is a Washington consensus that Iran's missile arsenal is by and large intact and operational. Trump reasoned earlier in the conflict that Iran's missiles won't be completely taken away or destroyed:
“I mean, they have to have some, because other people have some. You got to have some,” Trump said.
“I like some of these guys, but I … don’t think they’re smart. ‘Sir, you shouldn’t let them have any missile,’” the president said of unnamed advisers. “I said, ‘well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can’t have them?’ ‘Yes, sir.’”
“Doesn’t work that way, you know, it doesn’t work that way, and missiles aren’t the problem,” he said. “Missiles, they hurt a little location, but they don’t blow up the planet.”
Iran plans to upgrade all missiles, incl land & naval missiles, to hit targets farther from Iran’s shores. Iran’s Army Spokesman said, “In this war, we came to the conclusion that we definitely need to increase the range of our missiles, and we have now moved in that direction.” He says Iran has done very good work in terms of missile speed and precision-strike capability, and future generations of missiles will possess these capabilities to an even greater extent. He says while the missiles that were used against US bases such as in Kuwait or against US assets in the sea were very good and effective, they have now concluded that Iran needs to increase their speed and range, because today the enemy is positioned farther away from Iran’s shores, at distances of up to 1,000 kilometers.
— Arya Yadegaar (@AryJeayBackup) October 4, 2026
For the US military, hunting down all storage and deployment locations would likely be a nearly impossible task - given both the huge size of Iran and the fact that the bulk of the arsenal lies in underground 'missile cities'. Any kind of total dismantling of the program would require heavy ground forces - something which the White House has thus far shown a strong aversion to.