While the strategic threats posed by the Fordow nuclear facility and Pickaxe Mountain are well-known fixtures of Western security debates, it is a dangerous oversight to ignore Eagle 44, an underground Iranian air force base engineered to withstand precision airstrikes and project lethal power directly over the Persian Gulf.
Recent satellite imagery reveals that Tehran has already finished the upper concrete layer of a new western taxiway section and is actively pushing a second segment across stabilized soil. Iranian engineers have cleared runway obstacles and stripped debris from the pavement, though impact craters still pockmark the ground near the western tunnel entrances and surface buildings remain in ruins. Situated deep in the Zagros foothills of Hormozgan province, this complex sits a mere 100 miles northwest of the critical Strait of Hormuz. Because the tunnels excavated here since 2013 shelter IRIAF F-4 Phantoms, strike drones, and heavy munitions, the base represents a vital node in Tehran’s regional strategy. First unveiled in February 2023, the subterranean fortress is now receiving a redundant taxiway precisely so aircraft can still reach the 2.5-mile runway if a primary access route is cratered.
