TEHRAN — Iran inflicted billions of dollars in damage on U.S. intelligence facilities and surveillance equipment across West Asia during waves of retaliatory missile and drone strikes, NBC News reported, citing four sources familiar with the damage.
The report described the destruction as unprecedented for the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies, saying Iranian attacks damaged buildings and surveillance equipment at intelligence posts across the region on a scale that American spy agencies have not previously experienced.
“Iranian missile and drone attacks have inflicted damage on U.S. intelligence posts and surveillance hardware in the [region] that is more extensive than any destruction [U.S.] spy agencies have endured,” NBC News reported, citing the four sources. The damage, the sources said, would cost billions of dollars to repair.
The significance of the report extends beyond the cost of repairing buildings and replacing surveillance equipment. 
The attacks struck at a network of intelligence, communications and surveillance facilities that forms a critical part of the U.S. military architecture across West Asia, raising questions over Washington’s ability to protect fixed installations while sustaining terrorist operations from bases within range of Iranian missiles and drones.
The NBC report said the attacks were unprecedented because there have been no known instances since the CIA was established in 1947 in which the agency and other U.S. intelligence services faced repeated aerial attacks against their sites and equipment on this scale.
The disclosure follows months of reporting indicating that Iran’s retaliatory campaign caused substantially greater damage to U.S. military infrastructure than the Pentagon initially acknowledged.
The Iranian strikes targeted not only military installations but specifically intelligence sites and surveillance equipment used jointly by U.S. armed forces and intelligence agencies across the region. 
Among the damaged facilities were a CIA office in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and an intelligence center in Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah province. Radar systems and other surveillance infrastructure used for monitoring regional threats were also hit.
Key elements of the intelligence network that sustained damage include fixed electronic intelligence stations, satellite communications systems, data processing centers, power lines, and cooling systems for high-technology equipment. 
The scope of destruction has significantly limited U.S. capabilities to monitor hot spots across West Asia and track movements of anti-American resistance groups, the report said.
The NBC report follows an earlier assessment from April that found Iranian strikes since the war began on February 28 had hit more than 100 targets across at least 11 U.S. military installations in seven countries: Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.  
CNN, citing satellite imagery, damage assessment reports, and U.S. and Persian Gulf sources, reported that at least 16 U.S. bases in West Asia sustained varying levels of damage from Iranian retaliation since February 28.
A Washington Post investigation based on satellite imagery found that Iranian strikes had damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across West Asia. 
The targets included hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft and radar, communications and air-defense equipment. The Post said the scale of destruction was considerably greater than what the U.S. government had publicly acknowledged.
The satellite analysis was based on more than 100 high-resolution images released by Iranian media, with The Washington Post verifying 109 of them against imagery from the European Union’s Copernicus satellite system and commercial satellite providers.  
The financial consequences have also become increasingly difficult for Washington to separate from the broader cost of the war.
The Washington Post reported this month that the Pentagon expects the U.S. military campaign to cost about $37.5 billion by September, excluding the cost of repairing damage to American bases struck by Iran. The newspaper said the Pentagon had not included those reconstruction expenses in its war-cost estimates.
The American Enterprise Institute has separately estimated that repairing damage at U.S. military bases across the region could cost about $5 billion. That estimate covers damage to 11 installations in seven West Asia countries and does not capture the full cost of replacing destroyed military equipment or the wider consequences of disrupted operations.
The Post also reported that at least 42 U.S. aircraft had been reported lost or damaged, citing a May Congressional Research Service assessment.
The scale of the damage has prompted a broader reassessment in Washington of whether large, fixed U.S. military installations in the Persian Gulf remain viable in an environment where Iranian missiles and drones can repeatedly reach them.
The Financial Times reported this week that the future of America’s extensive Persian Gulf basing network is under serious reconsideration after six months of war. 
The newspaper said Iranian attacks had exposed the vulnerability of large fixed installations and prompted debate over whether Washington should spend billions rebuilding facilities that may remain vulnerable to further attacks.
The question is particularly acute because many of the American installations sit relatively close to Iran and contain large concentrations of personnel, aircraft, command facilities, warehouses, radar systems and other high-value equipment.
Iran’s retaliation has already forced changes in the American military posture. U.S. forces and equipment have been shifted toward locations farther from the range of Iranian short-range missile and drone systems, while alternative facilities have assumed greater importance for logistics and operations.
Earlier in the war, Iranian missile strikes on U.S. positions in Jordan killed American service members, demonstrating that Tehran’s retaliation could impose direct human costs as well as damage to military installations.
Axios reported on July 18 that two U.S. service members were killed and others wounded after Iranian ballistic missiles struck the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.  
Al Jazeera subsequently reported that an Iranian attack on a U.S. military site in Jordan that killed three American soldiers demonstrated Iran’s ability to continue inflicting casualties on U.S. forces months into the war.
Iran also expanded its retaliatory targeting of U.S. positions across the Persian Gulf and wider region.  
The Associated Press reported last week that more than 750 U.S. service members had been wounded since the Iran war began, according to Pentagon figures. The report said many of the injuries were linked to traumatic brain trauma, while the Pentagon had provided limited public details about the circumstances of the casualties.
The intelligence damage disclosed by NBC News adds a new dimension to that picture.
Unlike conventional military facilities, intelligence posts and surveillance systems are designed to provide the information needed to detect threats, monitor adversary activity and support military operations. 
Damage to those systems can therefore have consequences extending beyond the immediate physical destruction of buildings or equipment.
NBC’s report underscores a contradiction confronting Washington: facilities built over decades to sustain American military power in West Asia have become increasingly exposed to a retaliatory arsenal that can reach them across the region.