What Air Superiority Looks Like in Modern Warfare

Today, there is important news from the Middle East. 

Here, Iran’s inability to shield its air defense assets has led to the country’s total failure to protect itself and their valuable military assets. Complete Israeli air superiority over western Iran has decisively reshaped the battlefield, with Iranian forces rapidly losing control over their own country.

In the first hours of Israel’s operation, over one hundred critical Iranian air defense assets, radar stations, missile systems, and fighter jets, were systematically dismantled.

This surgical operation opened up the airspace from Iran’s western borders, stretching eastward and even encompassing the capital, Tehran itself. The annihilation of these key sites effectively blinded Iran’s air defense network, severely impairing their response capabilities.

Initially, Israeli strikes targeted vital radar facilities responsible for airspace control. The Subashi Radar Site, essential for coordinating air defense in northwestern Iran, was obliterated first, exposing large parts of the Iranian heartland and opening direct aerial pathways toward Tehran. Another crucial installation, the Piranshahr Radar Site near the Iraqi border, was similarly neutralized in the opening moments of hostilities.

These early strikes deprived Iranian forces of critical early-warning capabilities, enabling subsequent precision attacks on mobile missile defense assets.

Following the radar neutralization, Iran’s surface-to-air missile systems were next in line to be destroyed. Notably, a Sevom Khordad air defense unit was intercepted and destroyed on its transport truck along the Saveh-Tehran highway before deployment. A Tor short-range missile launcher near Dalahu in western Iran suffered a similar fate, further degrading local defensive capacities. Most notably, Israel destroyed a critical S-300 radar at the strategically vital Isfahan Airbase, eliminating a cornerstone of Iran’s long-range air defense. Additional radar and SAM positions across northwestern Iran were repeatedly targeted, systematically dismantling what remained of Iran’s aerial defense umbrella.

After the ground-based air defenses were all neutralized, the Israeli Air Force carried out precision strikes against Iranian airbases, devastating Iran's fighter fleet and their ability to contest the airspace over western Iran.

Confirmed open source intelligence reports document the destruction of several Iranian aircraft on the ground, including several F-14 Tomcats, a symbolically significant legacy of pre-revolutionary Iranian air power, but also a vital aerial refueling plane at Mashhad Airport.

Additionally, unspecified numbers of MiG-29 fighters and Su-24 bombers stationed at Mehrabad Airport were heavily damaged or destroyed in their hangars, severely restricting Iran’s remaining air combat capabilities.

The cumulative impact of these targeted operations profoundly disrupted Iranian command structures and response mechanisms. Without radar coverage and operational airfields, Iran’s remaining military assets were swiftly relocated to safer locations eastward, away from Israel’s expanding aerial dominance. But repositioning these critical assets, especially ballistic missile launchers, presented new challenges. Iran attempted to maintain its missile strike capabilities by redeploying launchers into eastern provinces, hoping distance alone would shield them from Israeli strikes. However, Iranian ballistic missiles generally possess a maximum range of around 2,000 kilometers, restricting launch positions to a shrinking sliver of land over which Israeli did not yet have full aerial superiority.

Despite these measures, Iranian efforts to preserve operational launch sites are severely compromised by the ongoing activities of Israeli intelligence. Mossad operatives, reinforced by U.S. drone surveillance and real-time satellite intelligence, aggressively track and expose all movements, resulting in many Iranian military assets being tracked and destroyed while on the move. Consequently, even eastern Iran no longer offers a guaranteed sanctuary for ballistic assets, forcing Iranian commanders into increasingly desperate measures to preserve any remaining offensive capability.

As a result the number of Iranian missile strikes against Israel has already shrunken significantly, while Iranian command centers, logistics hubs, and remaining missile launchers continue to be dismantled on masse.  

Overall, Iran's catastrophic loss of air superiority at the onset of hostilities has fundamentally determined the subsequent course of the conflict. By incapacitating radar and missile defenses, destroying vital aircraft, and forcing the redeployment of missile systems far eastward, Israel ensured unchallenged aerial dominance over vast Iranian territory. Iranian attempts to adapt by moving assets beyond the immediate reach of Israeli strikes are increasingly futile and ultimately, Israel's early establishment of absolute air superiority has decisively shaped the battlefield, severely limiting Iran's options and sealing the fate not only of its airspace defense but perhaps of the country itself.

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