Decapitation, Epic Fury and the Unknown
Over the course of this full-scale war, Russia has used more than 57,000 shahed-type attack drones against the Ukrainian people, cities, and energy infrastructure. Other nations have also suffered from Iranian-backed terror. Therefore, it is fair to give the Iranian people a chance to rid themselves of a terrorist regime and to guarantee security for all nations that have suffered from terror originating in Iran. President Zelenskyy, 28 February 2026
It is now two days since the beginning of the US-Israel military campaign against Iran. Unlike the other strikes against Iran in the post 7 October 2023 era, the military strikes commenced in broad daylight which appears to have caught the Iranians off guard.
As American and Israeli military strikes continue, and Iran pursues its campaign of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East, I wanted to provide a short update. This will cover the current situation with the military campaign, the context for these provided by Trump’s stated political objectives for the war, and finally, pose some insights and questions about this new war against Iran.
Strategic and Operational Update
Phase 1 of the military campaign focussed on three target sets and was largely successful: command and control (leaders, staffs, and networks); air defence networks (radars and other sensors, C2 and launchers); and Iran’s long range retaliation capacity (long and medium range missiles, TELs, storage depots, naval vessels and possible missile factories).
The strikes were designed to rupture the regime’s ability to provide a cohesive military defence while US and Israeli forces destroyed their air defences, offensive capacity as well as internal security forces. I expect that covert operations are also being undertaken by Israel and America while the pressure of strikes take place to support a change in Iran’s regime.
America and Israel have employed a variety of missiles, uncrewed aircraft, land and carrier based crewed aircraft and munitions in their attacks so far. This includes at least one mission by U.S. Air Force B2s that employed 2000lb bombs to attack Iranian subterranean missile storage sites. So far, casualties to military forces appear to have been restricted to the three members of the U.S. Army killed yesterday as well as one USAF F-15 that has been reported to have been downed in a friendly-fire incident. Thankfully both crew survived. Video of the incident is available here.
After the strikes commenced, President Trump
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