It has only been twelve days since the start of Operation EPIC FURY, but with over 5,000 targets struck and the 24/7 media coverage, it feels like multiple weeks, if not months, already. Regionally based U.S. Air Force fighters and bombers, Navy carrier aviation, long-range strike aircraft operating from outside the theater, and the Israeli air force continue to generate an unprecedented operational tempo.
According to the Secretary of War Hegseth, on 10 March, EPIC FURY’s objectives are to:
“One: destroy their missile stockpiles, their missile launchers, and their defense industrial base, missiles, and their ability to make them. Two: destroy their Navy. And three: permanently deny Iran nuclear weapons forever.”
Later in the briefing, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs further defined the first objective to include destroying Iranian drone capability to prevent attacks against the United States and regional partners.
The relentless strikes and precision delivery of kinetic weapons have significantly reduced the Islamic Republic’s military capability to launch attacks, and U.S. led integrated regional air defenses have blunted the effectiveness of Tehran’s attacks. The Pentagon states the precipitous drops in Iranian missile launches (93%), a parallel drop in drone attacks (80%), and the destruction of over 50 Iranian Navy ships as evidence of EPIC FURY’s success. Expanding waves of U.S. and Israeli attacks targeting missile sites, command centers, and military infrastructure continue the systematic dismantling of the Iranian regime’s military capabilities.
Much of the public discussion has focused on the visible destruction of Iranian military capability. The Pentagon’s quantification of damage has become Exhibit A of EPIC FURY’s success and, by implication, evidence that the combined U.S. and Israeli air armada that ranks among the most powerful concentrations of air power assembled in modern history, is ‘winning.’
But does destroying Iran’s military capability necessarily lead to the desired outcome either the capitulation or overthrow of the revolutionary regime?
