With the outbreak of the imposed war, the need to protect human resources and enhance medical capacities in operational areas led to the establishment and development of field hospitals in Iran. This study aims to explain the significance, functions, and structural evolution of field hospitals during the Sacred Defense era. The findings indicate that safe site selection, provision of essential utilities, protection of medical personnel and wounded soldiers against aerial and ground attacks, and the provision of facilities for performing critical surgical procedures were among the most important considerations in the design and construction of these medical centers. Field hospitals operated in critical areas and in locations where existing medical and evacuation facilities lacked sufficient capacity, serving as specialized medical centers and playing a crucial role in sustaining the lives of the wounded and treating combatants.
Initially, the construction of these hospitals involved the installation of steel shed structures. Cooperation between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Combat Engineering units and the Construction Jihad laid the groundwork for constructing steel sheds buried underground. However, the increasing intensity of aerial and artillery attacks revealed the need for more resistant structures. In response to this need, the construction of blast-resistant concrete hospitals was placed on the agenda. In 1984, the Imam Reza Field Hospital was constructed along the Majnoon Islands axis in the Jofair area as the first example of this type of structure. Overall, the transition from buried steel structures to blast-resistant concrete structures elevated field hospitals to a higher level of operational efficiency, structural strength, and resilience.