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12:07 05.03.2026 •
Satellite imagery shows smoke rising from a building at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia
Photo: NYT
Communication and radar systems on at least seven U.S. military sites across the Middle East, according to a New York Times analysis of satellite imagery and verified videos.
Visuals show damage on or close to mechanisms used to track incoming ballistic missiles, satellite dishes and radomes, which are weatherproof covers that protect sensitive equipment used by forces to communicate over long distances.
U.S. military communication infrastructure is highly classified, making it difficult to determine which exact systems may have been affected. But the targeted locations appear to indicate Iran was aiming to disrupt the U.S. military’s ability to communicate and coordinate. Iran has attacked the U.S. military’s communication capacity as recently as last June, when it struck a Qatari base it hit again over the weekend.
Strikes potentially affecting these systems also occurred on military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Video verified by The Times showed that an Iranian one-way attack drone struck a radome on Saturday in the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain. The base is the United States’ primary hub for coordinating naval operations in the Middle East.
Satellite imagery taken of the headquarters the following day showed that at least one additional radome was destroyed.
Destroyed satellite communication terminals March 1
Photo: NYT
A radar system known as AN/TPY-2, which is used to detect and track ballistic missiles and is crucial to coordinating missile interception, appears to have been stationed next to one of the buildings that was hit since June of last year. It is unclear from the imagery if the radar system itself was damaged.
The target of a strike over 100 miles east at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates was less clear. Satellite imagery captured shows that tightly clustered buildings and tents within a compound about the size of a football field were heavily damaged.
The base was struck again in the same general area, according to satellite imagery captured on Monday.
The Times previously reported that additional American military facilities in Dubai, Iraq and Kuwait were damaged during the weekend strikes, and newly captured satellite imagery shows damage at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
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