IDF assessment: 50% of Iranian missiles armed with cluster bomb warheads — Iran's salvo coordination degrading

The IDF released a major intelligence assessment on Iran's ballistic missile campaign: approximately 50% of the missiles fired at Israel since the war began have been armed with cluster bomb warheads. Each cluster warhead spreads dozens of submunitions, each containing several kilograms of explosives, over a radius of approximately 10 kilometers. The indiscriminate area-coverage effect makes cluster munitions particularly dangerous for civilian populations — and particularly difficult to intercept, since even a successful missile interception can scatter live submunitions over a wide area. Interception of cluster-armed missiles has been 'effective but challenging,' IDF officials said, stressing that 'air defenses are not hermetic.' The Yehud construction site strike that killed two civilians this week was a cluster bomb impact. The IDF also assessed that Iran is now 'struggling to carry out coordinated, larger barrages toward Israel' — firing one or a small number of missiles at a time rather than the mass salvos seen earlier in the war. This is consistent with the IDF's three Tehran strike waves targeting launch infrastructure, mobile launcher positions, and command and control at Imam Hossein University and Quds Force HQ. Iran's salvo coordination is degrading, but its residual capacity to fire individual missiles remains.