As Washington moves aircraft fearing Iranian strikes, Iran showcases its underground missile capabilities; top military commander declares the U.S. and Israel the definite losers of the war and warns of further surprises in any renewed confrontation.

TEHRAN – The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps unveiled a new underground "missile city" on Tuesday, displaying ballistic and cruise missiles and their launchers as the armed forces chief of staff declared that the United States and Israel are "the definite losers" of the recent war.

The unveiling coincided with Western reports that U.S. aircraft were evacuated from a British airbase over what officials described as a threat from Tehran.

Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters Major General Ali Abdollahi, and commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Major General Ali Abdollahi attended the unveiling.

Video released by the IRGC showed the officials inside tunnels of the facility, with various ballistic and cruise missiles and their transporter-erector launchers on display.

Addressing aerospace personnel, General Abdollahi said: "By the grace of God, a surprising achievement has been made."

The event, he said, is the product of a long war as he turned to the scale of the recent aggression by the United States and Israeli against the Islamic Republic.

"Statistics show that the United States has never used such a quantity of munitions and military equipment in such a period of time in any war; and that too advanced munitions manufactured today, the effects of which we have also observed on the battlefield."

General Abdollahi then explained why that firepower has failed. "What caused this failure more than weapons, equipment and facilities was the will of human beings; the will of combatants like you and Sardar Seyyed Majid Mousavi."

From that premise he drew a doctrine: the enemy's scale does not set Iran's calculus.

"The size of the enemy and the quantity of its equipment and facilities are not the basis for our decision. What has achieved our victories so far is precisely this spirit; we neither accept the enemy's calculations nor do these calculations affect our will," he said.

Responding to recent remarks by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, General Abdollahi said: "Netanyahu recently said 'either we must destroy Iran or Iran will destroy us.' These words are nothing new; it is clear that we will certainly destroy them".

"They have tested their capabilities before and came to the battlefield with everything they had, but failed to achieve their goal," he added.

"Their goal was to destroy the Islamic Republic, but they could not achieve it; therefore, to this moment, the Zionist regime and the United States are the definite losers on the battlefield".

General Abdollahi also warned: "If the enemy wants to make a mistake, our response will be without limits and beyond the region," and stated that "surprises will continually reveal themselves in the future war".

General Mousavi said the capabilities inherited from previous aerospace commanders constitute "a strong and reliable defense tool for protecting the great people and following the orders and directives of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei] against the enemies."

“Today, in an acceptable and reliable manner, we have the readiness to confront any threat in the region and beyond."

Relying on the people, he added: "We will demonstrate our steadfastness, resistance and endurance against the enemies and dissuade them from any error or mistake."

"If necessary, we will bring all their capabilities in the region and beyond under our fire and will leave nothing for the enemy but defeat and rout. In all arenas of battle, the combatants of the Aerospace Force will be at the forefront of the system, as in the two previous wars."

The unveiling came as the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. aircraft had been evacuated from RAF Mildenhall in eastern England following an alleged threat from Iran.

At least eight air refueling tankers and three Ospreys left the base on Monday, with some KC-135 Stratotankers relocated to airbases in Germany and Spain, and one moved to the Glasgow Prestwick area, according to flight tracking data cited by NBC News.

A U.S. official confirmed the aircraft were operating under "enhanced force protection measures" and would not speculate on the exact nature of the threat.

"We take proactive measures to ensure our aircraft, our people, and our installations remain safe and secure," the official said.

The evacuation follows weeks after the U.S. withdrew bombers from RAF Fairford.  

On Saturday, IRGC spokesman Brigadier General Hussein Mohebbi said the new missile city and other achievements are a "special gift" to the Iranian people, and that new "surprise" weapons "will astonish the whole world" if a third wave of conflict erupts.

Mohebbi disclosed that Iran has created a "missile production city below the surface," moved production underground, and that Iranian missiles have penetrated multiple layers of enemy air defense, rendering THAAD and Patriot systems ineffective.

President Donald Trump, citing new "momentum" in negotiations to end the war, downplayed the prospect of new U.S. attacks.

Trump told reporters at the White House following a meeting with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani that further terrorist U.S. attacks "won't be necessary" at this point, but Washington remains "locked and loaded" should circumstances change.

Trump's remarks, however, should be treated with skepticism and may signal the opposite of what they suggest, given his previous pattern of declaring breakthroughs in negotiations before launching unprovoked aggression against Iran while diplomatic talks were still underway.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll, completed Monday, showed 71% of Americans—including 93% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans—want Congress to pass legislation ending the war that Trump launched alongside U.S. ally Israel in February.

Democrats won their largest majorities in the Senate and House since at least 2008 in last week's midterm elections, in a sharp rebuke to Trump's Republicans over high costs and a deeply unpopular war.  

The IRGC's display of military capability comes amid mounting evidence of the scale of damage inflicted on U.S. bases in the region during the eight-month war.

A Pentagon inspector general report acknowledged that hundreds of buildings and facilities at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan were damaged or destroyed by Iranian attacks between February 28 and June 30.

The U.S. Naval Force regional center in Bahrain was destroyed, creating challenges for establishing new naval bases and necessitating the relocation of some logistical operations to Diego Garcia.

The New York Times reported that the base in Bahrain, once called "the busiest 152 acres in the world," remains effectively off limits to nonessential personnel, with roughly 1,500 service members and family members evacuated.

At least 23 U.S. troops were killed and some 800 wounded, according to American accounts at which many observers have cast aspersions, with thousands of troops displaced and nearly 60 aircraft lost, amounting to approximately $3.7 billion in equipment losses.

Mohebbi's Saturday remarks had also emphasized that Iran's response to any renewed aggression would be "asymmetric" and that "any point we feel is a serious threat to us will be our target."

He cited guidance from the Leader that "the vast sky and infinite space will be in the grip of our missiles, and without geographical limitation, we will be ready to defend the country's existence, identity, territorial integrity and ancient Iranian-Islamic civilization everywhere in the world".

"We will strike the enemy more than our dear people imagine," Mohebbi said, adding that "any aggression in any field and any arena against the Islamic Republic will have a heavy price for it, and it must pay for it for years".