Long before the first blast ripped through the night, the target was mapped out.
The Americans and Israelis knew that this building near the city of Isfahan was a key node of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force. Inside, men planned and coordinated Iran‘s ballistic missile and drone attacks.
The mid-March operation was layered and surgical. First came observation. RQ-170 Sentinels – a highly classified, low-observable ‘stealth’ unmanned aerial system – had tracked a surge in activity at the facility. Vehicles roared in and out; crews scrambled from hangars; communications spiked. An Iranian attack was imminent.
Then came the invisible assault: EA-18G Growler jets choked Iranian radar with jamming, while AGM-88 HARM missiles hunted down any communications systems still emitting signals, destroying some and forcing others to go dark. With the site effectively blinded, F-35I Adir stealth fighters slipped into position, backed by heavier firepower: B-2 Spirit bombers carrying the massive GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator.
When the kinetic strike came, it was swift, decisive and awesome.
The GBU-57 does not explode on impact; instead, it punches deep into its target before detonating. That night, buildings pancaked inward, their roofs buckling as reinforced steel layers imploded, crushing underground command centres. By dawn, all that remained was a charred ruin, its most senior personnel little more than a smear of blood amid shattered concrete.
In the days that followed, Iran’s missile activity in the region slowed. Follow-up surveillance confirmed a ‘functional kill’ – a critical gap in Iran’s ability to plan and execute missile operations.
In so many ways, the Iran War is 21st-century conflict epitomised.
Never has warfare been so forensically and professionally conducted; never so surgical. Swathes of the enemy leadership taken out in minutes; cyber-war neutering Iranian facilities in seconds. Never has a regime of terror been so utterly, and precisely, shattered from the air.
On the ground, Israel’s infiltration of Iran’s security forces is equally extraordinary. I am told by sources it is so pervasive that when confusing or seemingly counterproductive orders are issued, the default assumption is that they’ve come from commanders who are Mossad agents. The systematic degradation of Iran’s security apparatus is unprecedented.
And yet the Iranian regime believe they have won. The Supreme National Security Council of Iran called the war an ‘undeniable, historic and crushing defeat’ for the enemy. It’s what you’d expect them to say. But many in the West are taking them at their word.
We must ask why.
Hellbound and Down 