Iran’s massive Sunday night missile barrage was the biggest escalation since Operation Rising Lion began — but that’s bad news for Tehran.
In the first three days of attacks, the IAF reportedly had destroyed about a third of Iran’s missile launchers. Iran’s options for conventional military attacks were always limited, and those options shrink with every destroyed launcher or intercepted missile.
Looking at the broader picture, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that the IAF now operates over all of Iran with near-impunity. The Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday that Israel “achieved air superiority over western Iran within 48 hours of starting its war.” That’s a “feat Russia couldn’t achieve in Ukraine” after three-plus years of fighting, the paper dryly noted.
In the 24 hours or so since, Israel seems to have extended its air superiority over the entire country.
Yesterday, the IAF struck an Iranian airbase at Mashhad, near the border with Turkmenistan in Iran’s far northeast. Iran had reportedly moved some of its aged F-4 fighters to Mashhad — which is about as far from Israel as anywhere in Iran — for safety.
Iran’s air force wasn’t much before Rising Lion. Now it’s even less.
Hellbound and Down 