Key Points and Summary:
The Israeli Air Force now flies with virtual impunity over Iran, having systematically dismantled the country’s air defense network in a campaign culminating in “Operation Rising Lion.”
-Initial strikes in 2024 degraded key assets, including Russian-made S-300 systems.
-The main assault, which began on June 12-13, 2025, saw F-35I Adir stealth fighters create safe corridors, allowing non-stealth F-15I and F-16I jets to strike numerous targets.
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-This achievement of near-total air superiority, a result of superior technology and long-term planning, has left Iran’s military and nuclear infrastructure highly vulnerable to further Israeli attacks.
Crippled by Israeli Air Strikes, Iran’s Air Defenses Are Now Ineffectual
Levaraging robust reconnaissance capabilities, as well as
advanced stealth technology
, the Israeli Air Force flies with virtual
impunity
.
Israel’s strike campaign against Iranian military assets and other targets across the country has been facilitated by the Israeli Air Force’s ability to fly throughout the country virtually untouched and free to prosecute strikes seemingly at
whim
.
Initial strikes by
Israeli F-35I fighters
, fifth-generation jets that incorporate some of the most advanced stealth technology available today, paved the way for wider strikes by
Israel’s other non-stealth jets
like
the F-15I
and F-16I.
Those jets benefit from extensive
Israeli modifications
and tweaks to the aircraft that optimize them for interoperability with indigenous Israeli munitions. In the case of the F-15I, what was the United States post-Vietnam air superiority fighter is transformed into essentially a bomber
Though Iran has still managed to fire salvoes of long-range munitions at Israel, with some evidently evading interception, the
country’s air defenses
now seem to be almost nonexistent.
“We have opened up the skies of Iran, achieving near-air superiority,” Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States,
said
on X, formerly Twitter. “This allows us to target components of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.”
“Air Defense Force. Supreme Leader Khamenei established the Air Defense Force in 2019, making it the newest Artesh service. The Air Defense Force operates a wide range of indigenously produced air defense assets, though its most advanced are Russian-sourced S-300s, which Iran acquired in 2016,” the
Institute for the Study of War
recently
wrote
.
“Israel has repeatedly struck the S-300s since April 2024, disabling these platforms. And the ongoing Israeli air campaign against Iran has further degraded this service and thus its ability to defend Iranian airspace. The Air Defense Force is subordinate to the Khatam ol Anbia Air Defense Headquarters, which is a national command and notably distinct from the central headquarters mentioned earlier. The Khatam ol Anbia Air Defense Headquarters, which has always been commanded by a senior Artesh officer, oversees the air defense units in the Artesh and IRGC and thus maintains the Iranian integrated air defense system.”
Puzzle Pieces Falling into Place
That Iran’s air defense systems would be virtually nonresistant now was not guaranteed, nor did it reach its present ineffectual state in a single fell swoop.
Instead, the Israeli Air Force pressured
Iranian air defenses
over more than a year’s time.
Strikes against the county’s assets in the spring and fall of last year slowly degraded Iranian air defense assets, including four Russian-made
S-300 air defense systems
.
More recently, however, the Israeli Air Force has leveraged its American-designed
F-35 fighters
to carve out free flight corridors to Tehran, the Iranian capital, and elsewhere.
Iran’s Air Defenses are Nearly Gone?
Some Iranian officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity,
bemoaned
the state of air affairs in Iran. “Where is our air defense?” one asked. “How can Israel come and attack anything it wants, kill our top commanders, and we are incapable of stopping it?”
Through a combination of high-tech aviation technology — arguably some of the most sophisticated aviation technology available to the Israeli Air Force today — as well as a robust reconnaissance and surveillance capability that is a contender for the most well-informed in the Middle East, Israel has managed to decapitate the Iranian Air Defense Force.
“Imagine if Operation Overlord in World War II began with the elimination of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the German High Command; Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS; Field Marshal Erwin Rommel; numerous other senior generals; and the destruction of all of Germany’s air defenses, before a single Allied soldier landed on the beaches of Normandy,” John Spencer
wrote
. “That’s not an exaggerated hypothetical. It’s a near-parallel to what Israel just did to Iran.”
The outcome is yet to be determined. Based on the current trajectory, however, the IAF has managed to exercise a degree of control with a rapidity that most other countries would struggle to accomplish.
The end result of the current hostilities is anybody’s guess, but what is eminently clear is that for now, at least, the
IAF rules the skies
in the Middle East.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. He also covers the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow
his latest work on X
.
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