Iran’s military forces still hold stockpiles of thousands of missiles and attack drones that pose a threat to U.S. and allied forces in the region, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency told Congress.
Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James H. Adams also revealed that the remnants of the Iranian regime remain in control and are expected to use asymmetric warfare against the U.S. and Israel while the conflict lasts.
“Despite significant degradation of Iranian military capabilities through coalition strikes during Operation Epic Fury, Tehran retains thousands of missiles and one-way attack [unmanned aerial vehicles] capable of threatening U.S. and partner forces throughout the region,” Gen. Adams told the House Armed Services subcommittee on intelligence and special operations on Thursday.
U.S. Central Command has conducted some 13,000 strikes on Iran since the war began, many aimed at missiles and missile production facilities.
The three-star general provided greater detail in his prepared testimony that revealed how Iran and regional proxies continue to wage a multi-front conflict against the United States, Israel and regional partners.
Joint airstrikes successfully eliminated some of Iran’s civilian and military officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and sharply degraded Tehran’s military while destroying key infrastructure that supports the Iranian energy sector, he stated.
Iran “almost certainly” expanded its wartime objectives from basic regime survival to deterring further strikes and extracting U.S. concessions, mainly through control over the Strait of Hormuz, said the military intelligence chief.
The testimony came before Iran’s announcement Friday that it is opening the strait to international shipping.
Gen. Adams said that if the Islamist regime survives the conflict, it will seek to rebuild military capabilities for use in suppressing domestic dissent and defending against external attacks.
Iran was rocked by widespread anti-regime protests from December to mid-January and has taken steps to prevent further large-scale opposition, he said.
“Iranian authorities almost certainly are keenly aware of widespread discontent among the Iranian populace, judging from the volume of celebrations following the former supreme leader’s death, and have instituted drastic measures to thwart any attempt at a popular uprising,” he stated.
Before the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28, Iran sought to bolster its degraded defenses and mitigate military shortfalls by seeking replacement weapon systems from Russia and China, he said.
The regime has also set up a designated succession plan for military commanders after large-scale Israeli airstrikes killed numerous political and military leaders. The Iranian military has established a decentralized command and control system to enable Tehran to partially mitigate the leadership decapitation strikes.
Much of Iran’s ground and air forces sustained damage during recent coalition strikes and as a result are unable to defeat a technologically superior adversary, the general said.
Gen. Adams said the DIA assesses that Iran is expected to advance its asymmetric warfare capabilities to augment degraded conventional military forces as long as the war continues.
Since the 12-Day War with Israel in June, Tehran has tried to improve its military forces through domestic development seeking improved accuracy, lethality and reliability of its missiles and drones and by seeking support from its partners.
The Iranian defense budget last year was about $16.8 billion and represented about 4.2% of gross domestic product. In the past four years, Tehran more than doubled its military spending devoted to defense modernization with nearly $8 billion in 2025, Gen. Adams said.
He also outlined Iranian cyberattack capabilities that he said range from information operations to espionage to disruptive and destructive attacks. The attacks have included mass data deletion against poorly secured government and commercial networks.
Iranian hackers are also capable of compromising and manipulating vulnerable critical infrastructure devices resulting in minor, temporary effects, he said.
Prior to the war, Iran refrained from conducting cyberattacks against the United States except for a few low-level disruptive electronic strikes.
“However, on 11 March, we observed Iran’s first destructive cyberattack against a U.S. company since 2014, when Iranian cyberactors conducted a data-deletion attack against a U.S. medical company,” Gen. Adams said.
“Iran almost certainly will continue using cyberattacks to impose costs on the United States throughout the remainder of the conflict.”
On Iran’s weapons of mass destruction, the DIA director said the late Iranian supreme leader maintained a ban on nuclear weapons after the 12-Day War, despite warnings from Iranian officials that attacks on the regime’s nuclear sites would lead to a reconsideration.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on March 18 that Iran’s nuclear doctrine was unlikely to change, but cautioned that the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, has not made his views on the matter public.
On the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force, the regime’s special forces, Gen. Adams said that since the conflict began, the force has provided attack guidance and sought to surge support for Iraqi Shia militias and Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.
The backing has allowed Iran to expand the conflict outside its borders and impose costs on regional adversaries, he said.
The Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have carried out hundreds of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and across the region, and Hezbollah terrorists remained focused on striking Israeli forces in northern Israel and southern Lebanon.
The attacks occurred despite both groups’ diminished capabilities.
Houthi forces in Yemen remain Iran’s most capable ally, following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and Israeli attacks on Hamas and Hezbollah over the past two years, Gen. Adams said.
Houthi attacks have not been carried out against the United States, as the group is focused on domestic concerns and fears of American retaliation, he said.
“Iran probably will continue to press the Houthis to participate in the conflict while refining attack guidance to Iraqi Shia militias and Hezbollah to better align with Tehran’s evolving strategic intent, such as closely managing escalatory attacks on regional energy infrastructure or embassies,” Gen. Adams said.
