What could an Iranian response be?What military options are now available to Iran?"They may not be a military superpower like America, but the one thing they have a lot of is ballistic missiles," says military analysts Sean Bell. "And as we saw last year, wave upon wave of those missiles, one might not get through, 10 might not get through. But if you launch 100 or 500, just a quantity has a quality all of its own." A drone view of a residential area in Be'er Sheva, Israel after an Iranian missile attack in June 2025.ReutersEmergency workers in Tel Aviv, Israel, following an Iranian missile attack in June 2025.ReutersIsrael, of course, might not be the only target."They could also attack US military facilities," says Bell. "There are a lot of military bases in the region. "They also did a live firing exercise on the Strait of Hormuz, shutting that down only the other day. "Why is that important to us? Around 20% of global oil goes through that strait. And that would immediately cause hassle on the oil markets. "And the final thing will be interesting... the Shaheed Bagherithe, which is a relatively new drone ship which the Iranians have commissioned, it's now in service and that's been operating close-ish to the aircraft carriers. "It can launch quite a lot of potent drones. "The Americans have got a very, very effective close-in protection in these carriers. But once you start flooding that defence with 20, 30, 50 drones at a time, it might be that the Americans would start to feel a little vulnerable. "It probably wouldn't sink the carrier, but my goodness, would it be a statement of intent."Defence and security editor Deborah Haynes says Iran's interpretation of this morning's attack will determine how it responds.She says Iran will have "wargamed" an attack such as this one by Israel and the US."Iran has a significant stockpile of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones," she says. "It has the ability to cause significant harm."And the key will be, to what extent the regime sees this as existential, and therefore it goes all out in terms of its response."To what extent, if that is the case, is it able to do that in terms of its stockpiles and its ability to attack, given the operations that have already been conducted against it." Beloud