What U.S. UNLEASHED on Iran’s Regime Looked Like ARMAGEDDON & Other War Stories

What U.S. UNLEASHED on Iran’s Regime Looked Like ARMAGEDDON & Other War Stories

The flight of the US bombers has absolutely torn through Iran.

First, it was the B2s which started the inferno and crippled Iran’s defenses.

Then came the B1s, which sent flaming fury through the underground bunkers that crisscross Iran’s territory.

Next up, the B-52s came in and finished the job with sledgehammer strikes that ruined Iran’s military regime.

This is three generations of firepower deployed to systematically destroy Iran.

And we’re going to reveal exactly what the US did and how it pulled off one of the most suppressive sustained aerial operations in modern military history.

It all started with the B2.

The crown jewel of the US bomber fleet, the B2 was the perfect choice for the shock and campaign that kicked off Operation Epic Fury.

A multi-roll bomber that has worldleading stealth capabilities.

The bomber will be able to sneak by Iran’s air defenses as those defenses were being systematically destroyed via strikes conducted by US and Israeli fighter jets.

And once it reached its targets, the B2 could unleash a devastating payload of up to 40,000 lb of munitions.

The US had to confront challenges when getting its B2s into Iranian airspace.

With no help from the UK, at least at that point, the B2 pilots had to fly 30hour plus round trips with the aid of aerial tankers.

as the bomber’s 6,000 nautical mile range wasn’t enough to get it to Iran and back.

But the US overcame those challenges, coordinated cleverly, its aerial tankers were precisely where they needed to be.

And during this opening salvo of strikes, America’s B2 bombers set the stage for everything that would come later in Operation Epic Fury.

How? Well, the aviationist provides some of the details.

It says that the US unleashed four of its B2 stealth bombers on Iran on February 28th.

Those bombers flew over the straight of Gibraltar on route to their targets, supported by KC46 refueling tankers that kept them in the sky far longer than they’re typically supposed to fly.

Once they arrived in Iran, the B2s did what they do best, dropped massive bombs on key military nodes.

Fox News’s Jennifer Griffin was among the earliest to confirm the involvement of the B2s in Operation Epic Fury.

By way of an unnamed US official, she reported on X that four B2 bombers flew round trip from the US, dropped dozens of 2,000lb bombs on underground ballistic missile sites in Iran.

This was confirmed by forces news, which said that the B2s targeted Iran’s hardened ballistic missile facilities during the initial strikes.

It also mentions the 2,000lb bombs, which seem more likely to have been Blue 109’s attached to Jade.

These bunker busters have been in use since Operation Desert Storm, meaning we started to see some crossgenerational firepower being deployed from the very opening hours of the operation.

More generational divides would be crossed in the days that followed, but we’ll get to that soon.

While there are no specifics about the types of hardened ballistic missile sites that the B2 struck during the first few hours of the operation, we can summize that they were likely the underground missile cities that Iran has touted many times in the past.

These massive bunkers are used as both storage sites for Iran’s ballistic missiles and as launching points due to the many entrances and exits built into them.

The B2s weren’t tasked with destroying the missile cities themselves.

That’s too large a task for 2,000lb bombs.

What the B2s could do was use their bunker busters to cave in tunnels, collapse entrances, and essentially turn the missile cities into massive tombs for the missiles that form the backbone of Iran’s entire military doctrine.

And that’s what they did to devastating effect.

By the end of the first 24 hours of the operation, America’s B2 bombers along with its stealth fighter jets and Israel’s airframes had struck over 1,000 targets all across Iraq.

Beyond the hardened ballistic missile sites, the first 24 hours saw the destruction of command and control facilities used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps along with Iranian ships, submarines, and air defense systems.

Iran’s military infrastructure was systematically dismantled during a shock and all set of strikes that left the Iranian high command reeling.

Some of Iran’s leaders didn’t make it, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kam.

He was one of the earliest casualties of the joint US and Israeli operation with his death plunging Iran into a situation where it had to deal with a leadership crisis on top of the sheer amount of firepower being unleashed upon it.

Fast forward to March 4th and we also start seeing the impact of America’s initial B2 strikes on Iran’s ability to wage war.

By that point, Iranian ballistic missile launches were down 86% compared to what they had been on February 28th.

And the crumbling missile facilities targeted by America’s B2s were a huge part of the reason why more would be coming for Iran, a lot more.

But with this initial wave of strikes, the US sent a very clear message to Iran’s regime.

The B2 was in play, and Iran hadn’t ever seen it coming.

That’s the entire point of a stealth bomber.

And as the four B2s that the US deployed made their multi,000mi trips back to the bases from which they’d flown, Iran must have been wondering what on earth the US could unleash next that could be anywhere near as bad as what it had just sent Iran’s way.

As we now know, the B2 strikes were just the beginning.

With its Crown Jewel bombers safely back home, the US decided to skip back a generation.

Iran’s air defenses had already been crippled so enormously that the need for stealth was no longer as much of a factor as it had been during the first day.

That meant the follow-up waves of attacks could be delivered by a different bomber entirely, the B1B Lancer.

Older doesn’t mean incapable when it comes to America’s bomber fleet.

And the US proved just that on March 1st and March 2nd when it used its B1s to unleash a firestorm of follow-up strikes against Iran.

The two days that followed the initial B2 strikes saw the US dip into its Cold War arsenal for the follow-up.

And when you hear the specifications for the B1, you’ll know why.

Sure, the bomber doesn’t have the stealth capabilities of its newer cousin.

But what it does have is the ability to fly at supersonic speeds, making it one of the fastest bombers that the US has, along with the ability to carry a staggering 75,000 lb of ordinance.

So, if the B2 came in quietly and delivered precision strikes against Iran’s hardened targets, the B1 was deployed to unleash explosive hell during the next few waves.

Among the weapons that a B1 can carry are JDAPS, cruise missiles, including the AGM158 Jassim and cluster munitions.

The first two on that list seem likely to be what the B1’s used in early March, as they provide the ability to strike from standoff range, minimizing the already small threat posed by Iran’s remaining air defenses, while also ensuring that plenty of firepower was delivered to the targets that the US wanted to hit.

As for those targets, the Jerusalem Post reports that a trio of B1 bombers followed up on the B2 strikes.

Like the B2s, the older bombers had to be refueled in the air as they made their trips from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota without any stops.

US Central Command or Sentcom revealed what the bombers hit in a March 2nd expost, accompanied by a video of B1’s taking off last night.

US B1 bombers struck deep inside Iran to degrade Iranian ballistic missile capabilities.

As the president stated, “We’re going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground,” Sankcom declared, telling us that this was a direct follow-up.

The B2s shattered the missile cities.

The B1’s came in to take out whatever was missed the first time around in multiple follow-up waves that Iran could do nothing about.

Interesting engineering adds that the B1’s arrived in Iran to serve as a high-capacity strike platform that fit perfectly into the wide network of air power that the US already has flying over the country.

As America’s fighter jets, from its F-15s up to its stealthy F-35s, worked to establish air superiority by taking out even more of Iran’s air defenses, the B1s arrived, unleashed massive volumes of precision munitions against their targets, and then flew back home.

This was a one-two punch delivered over 3 days that we’ve already revealed took a massive bite out of Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.

And by the end of the third day of Operation Epic Fury, Iran was dealing with a lot more than that.

But while we’re on this, here’s a quick reminder that you are watching the Military Show, and we break it down like this every single week.

Hit subscribe if you want more of this kind of insight.

Now, beyond the damage to Iran’s ballistic missile sites caused by the B2s and B1s, Iran’s entire military network was struggling by the end of March 2nd.

US President Donald Trump made that abundantly clear when he declared that all of Iran’s air defenses were gone along with its navy, air force, and leadership.

While perhaps a touch overly ambitious a claim, it’s not too far off the truth.

As B1s wrecked more of Iran’s missile capabilities, fighter jets were zipping around Iran, taking out air defenses and other military assets.

Command and control centers remained as targets, with each one taken down, contributing to the decline in Iranian missile launches.

After all, it’s not much use having missiles and launches when orders aren’t coming down the pipe to tell you what to hit.

And with each B1 strike, Iran’s launch options were whittleled down even further.

By March 5th, the number of targets that the US had struck had risen to over 2,000, which included more than 20 Iranian warships that had been taken out of commission.

The strikes were precise, well-coordinated, designed specifically to collapse the inner workings of the Iranian military while systematically depriving it of the weapon capabilities that it needed to put up anything even resembling a fight against the US.

And more was coming.

By this point, the US had established air superiority over Iran.

And with that superiority comes the ability to send more types of airframes into the fight.

The US did just that.

With the precision work done by the B2s and B1’s in multiple waves, America switched its strategy to one of sustained attrition.

From March 3rd to now, the US has been whittling away at what’s left of Iran’s military infrastructure with sustained attacks that haven’t given Iran any room at all to breathe.

To maintain those attacks, the US unleashed the oldest bomber in its arsenal, the B-52 Strata Fortress.

The mother of all American bombers, the B-52, has been around for about 70 years, and it’s still as effective now as it was during the 1950s, as long as it’s used in the right circumstances.

And those circumstances were created in Iran by the waves of strikes conducted by the B2s and B1s.

Since those early waves of attacks, the US has unleashed a bomber that can fly up to 9,000 m without the need for refueling, with the UK allowing the use of its bases from March 1st.

The US also didn’t have to worry about its older bomber flying round trip anymore.

They could land at RAF Barefoot, refuel, and then head on to attack Iran.

Attack is what the B-52 does better than almost any bomber in the world.

According to the US Air Force, the B-52 is capable of dropping or launching the widest array of weapons out of any airframe that the US has in its current arsenal.

The bomber has also been tweaked and upgraded over the years with adaptations made to its engines, likely to see it in service through to 2050.

There’s a lot of life in this old dog yet, along with the ability to unleash 70,000 lb of ordinance at targets.

And Iran has been feeling the pain of sustained B-52 strikes since March 3rd.

Sentcom confirmed the use of B-52s on March 3rd, and their job has been to deliver sledgehammer blow after sledgehammer blow to Iran.

Precision isn’t out of the window.

The B-52s are still hitting very specific targets.

But a bombing campaign that initially focused on Iran’s ballistic missile launch capacity has been expanded to include any military target that is within range of the B52s that are being sent into the country.

The establishment of local air superiority has also allowed America’s bombers to hit Iran’s missile production facilities.

So as Iran burns through the missiles that is still able to launch, it’s going to have a very hard time replacing them.

Command and control centers are still on the docket.

Military Times reports.

And the B-52s now being in continuous use means that Iran’s military infrastructure has gone from crumbling to almost non-existent.

And of course, yet more firepower also means that far more targets have been hit.

By March 11th, the US was claiming that it had struck over 5,500 targets in Iran.

For context, that’s not too far below 500 targets per day.

And it shows you what we mean when we say the arrival of the B-52 is a signal to switch to sustained attrition.

Remember, we told you earlier that the US was claiming to have hit about 2,000 targets by March 5th.

Tack a week’s worth of B-52 strikes on top of everything else the US is delivering with its fighter jets, and you get another 3,500.

This is constant pressure.

The B2s laid the table, the B1’s served up the food, and the B-52s are making sure that Iran’s regime chokes on every last morsel.

The UK is now playing a key role in the sustainment of this pressure.

As Forbes reported on March 11th, America’s B-52s are striking Iran from the UK.

The outlet reports, we know that there are at least three B-52s at RAF Bareford, which are likely flying in rotation to ensure that there is always one of these massive bombers in the skies over Iran at any given time.

More could arrive if the US chooses.

The US Air Force says that it has 58 active B-52s in its inventory along with another 18 that are in reserve.

Even with the three that are in the UK now, that amounts up to 210,000 lbs of ordinance in constant rotation.

The US could easily increase the number of B-52s active in Iran to 5 or 10, which would take what is already a dire situation for the country’s regime and turn it into an absolute catastrophe.

Could it possibly get any worse for Iran? Well, we think you might have already guessed the answer to that question.

With the UK bases now in play, the US isn’t limiting itself to B-52s.

The more valuable B1’s and B2s that were being risked on massive roundtrip sorties are now being used to hit Iran hard even as the B-52s maintain the sustained attrition campaign that they set up.

We’ll start with the B1s.

According to the war zone or TWWZ, a staggering 15 American bombers are now flying strike missions against Iran from RAF Fairford in the UK.

Among those bombers, which includes the B-52s we mentioned earlier, are B1s that have been filmed preparing for new missions in Iran.

TWWZ reported on this footage on March 11th, stating that it showcases B1s being loaded with AGM158 JMSs along with Jams equipped with the blue 109 2,000lb bunker busters that we mentioned earlier.

Missile delivery systems are also being removed from the B1s, which is yet another signal that the US has attained complete air supremacy over Iran.

No missile delivery system also means that the B1’s aren’t going to be firing cruise missiles, and that means the US isn’t worried about keeping its bombers in standoff range anymore.

TWWZ adds that the bomber force amassed at RAF Barefoot now includes three B-52s and 12 B1Bs, suggesting that the Strata Fortress is going to be taking a back seat to the B1 in the sustained attrition campaign over the coming days.

The outlet also theorizes that the US will be targeting large industrial complexes in Iran, including weapons production facilities and sites related to Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Perhaps that’s why the Blue 109’s are coming back into play.

Those bunker busters are coming back to take out even more hardened targets.

Then there are the B2s.

The US is a little more secretive about how it’s been using its ultramodern bombers following the February 28th blurry of strikes.

However, March 11th also saw TWWZ report that B2s may have conducted a strike against Iran’s Talagon 2 nuclear site using GBU57B massive ordinance penetrator bombs.

A significant step up from the Blue 109s that the B2s used in February.

These bunker busters weigh 30,000 lbs, can penetrate much deeper, and explode with so much force that they destroy anything in their path.

As for the evidence that they’ve been deployed, PWZ shares satellite images from VanTour, which shows what has happened at Talagan 2 in the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer, which was the joint US and Israeli mission that targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities back in the summer of 2025.

Iran’s regime has been hard at work trying to protect this base.

Concrete appears to have been layered over the top of it along with massive mounds of soil which combined to form a shield the blue 109’s can’t penetrate.

But that doesn’t matter.

In the most recent satellite photo from the site, we can see three very distinct and precise holes in the soil above Telon 2.

That tells us one thing.

The US unleashed its 30,000lb bombs and the B2 would have been the bomber that used it.

There is simply no letup for Iran right now.

Just when the regime thinks that the US has done the bulk of the damage that it’s going to do, more comes.

B-52s are still flying sorties.

But now 12 B1Bs are in the UK and they’re being loaded with bombs and bunker busters, telling us that the US has found yet more targets.

And as these two bombers focus on strategic and sustained attrition, the B2s are clearly taking to the air again.

Three holes at an underground nuclear bunker tell us that much more will come.

Much more.

The only question now is how much of this can Iran’s regime along with its military and nuclear infrastructure take before it has to submit to America’s bomber blitz? We’ll have to wait a while longer for the answer to that question.

As Iran’s entire military infrastructure crumbles, all it has left are missiles and drones, the latter of which it’s still using to blockade the straight of Hormuz.

The US has had enough.

F-15E Strike Eagles have taken flight, and they’re doing something huge to reopen that vital waterway.

The F-15s are beyond unstoppable.

That’s going to make the Straight of Hormuz’s blockade impossible.

This is precision domination that is leaving Iran desperate as its production facilities are shattered.

So desperate, in fact, that Iran is begging for an end to Operation Epic Fury and has been reduced to lying about the very fighter jet the US has unleashed.

But we’ll get to all of that later.

So stick with us until then.

The big news is that the US has moved into a new phase of aerial strikes against Iran.

And the F-15 is right at the center of that phase.

With air defenses destroyed and missile launch sites being picked off as soon as they detect it, the US has moved from ruining what there is of Iran’s military infrastructure, and it has now turned its sights toward what could be.

Iran’s military may be in tatters, but as long as its production facilities still exist, the regime could rebuild.

That’s where the latest F-15 strikes come into play.

leading a strike force that includes F-35s and B1 bombers.

America’s F-15s are destroying Iranian production plants left, right, and center.

Coast Reporter has noted this, pointing out that the Israeli Defense Forces have claimed that it’s conducted a series of strikes against what it simply calls production sites in Iran.

No more information was given, but the US is taking part in those strikes as part of Operation Epic Fury.

And there is one strike in particular that shows that America’s part in these attacks is all about opening up the straight of Hormuz.

As command and control centers burn, warehouses go up in flames, and military facilities building components explode, the US has zeroed in on Iran’s Shahid drone production to ensure that the country’s regime can’t build more of the unmanned aerial terrors that it’s been using to assault merchant ships attempting to sail through the straight of moves.

We saw just how effective these strikes have been on March 24th when the news broke that US air power had destroyed a drone engine manufacturing plant in the city of K.

That factory built the turbo jet engines that are used in Iran’s Shahid drones along with other aviation components making it a vital facility for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC which is causing so much chaos in the straight.

Militania provides the before and after, noting that satellite pictures taken on March 6th showed that the plant was still intact and operational.

Fast forward to today and it’s gone.

Nothing more than a crater in the ground after a likely F-15 took it out.

What we’re seeing here is the US moving into a new phase where it takes out drones that provide Iran with the means to fight back, albeit in fits and spurts during Operation Epic Fury.

These drones aren’t only targeting ships, though.

But we’ll get to why the Straight of Hormuz problem is the one that the US really wants to solve in a moment.

They’re also being launched at other Gulf nations, particularly those that have good relationships with the US, and they’re causing such major problems because of how cheap they are to produce.

NPR explains, noting that Iran spends between 20 and $50,000 to build a Shahid, depending on the specific model it’s making.

America’s F-15s could be deployed to intercept these cheap drones after they’re launched, as could groundbased air defense systems.

In fact, they both have been.

However, using expensive missiles to take out cheap drones isn’t the sort of maths that makes sense if the US is expecting a protracted campaign against Iran.

And the US certainly can’t allow Iran to build enough shahids to allow it to launch them in massive swarms against the Gulf States and the Straight of Hormuz.

And swarms are what Iran has been unleashing, even as the US whittleles away at the country’s drone launch sites with its attacks.

The first week of the operation saw Iran fire off over 1,000 drones against Gulf States and merchant ships.

There have been many more since, and Iran was believed to have the capacity to build 10,000 Shahids each month before the war began.

The US doesn’t have 10,000 Patriot and other interceptor missiles.

Even if it did, using a $4 million Patriot to shoot straight of Hmuz is the only thing that is stopping its regime from being completely overrun during Operation Epic Fury.

But now the Iranian grip is being broken.

AH64 Apache helicopters are doing something huge in the Strait of Hormuz as they’re delivering brutal payback to the Iranian regime for its actions.

Iran just got hit so hard that it thought Armageddon was upon it and it’s all thanks to a chopper that is among the best that the US has to offer.

On March 22nd, Army Recognition reported that the US has deployed its Apache helicopters alongside another aerial asset that we’ll cover later in the video to strike against Iranian threats in the Straight of Hormuz, both along the coastline and in the straight itself.

These combat helicopters will be operating throughout Iran’s southern coastline where the US has achieved near air supremacy and they will operate in a controlled air environment that enables them to launch precision strikes against Iran’s military and naval assets.

This is a big move by the US and it signals a change in posture as America attempts to secure the straight of Hormuz, thus securing the transit of dozens of merchant ships that sail through the waterway.

In the Apache, the US has an aerial asset that brings a lot of firepower to the table.

Loaded with sensors, the Apache can operate as an early warning system of sorts for the rest of America’s air power as it can detect incoming drones, fast boats, and other assets in the straight.

Not that the Apache will need support to counter these threats.

Its Hellfire missiles fly fast, hit hard, and the perfect counter for the small boats that Iran has been sending into the straight.

Add to that a top speed of 170 mph, which is more than enough to keep up with even the quickest vessel that Iran has been deploying against merchant ships in the straight, and you get a helicopter that can sense threats, react fast, and destroy almost anything that’s in its path.

We’ll be getting into why Iran’s fast boats, in particular, have become a major problem in the Straight of Hormuz in a few minutes.

Before that, we have more of what the Apache brings to the fight to cover.

These choppers, which have been in service since the 1980s, are operated by the US, Israeli, Dutch, and Japanese militaries for a reason.

They’re among the most versatile attack helicopters in the world.

Beyond the Hellfire missiles we’ve already mentioned, every Apache has a 30 mm M230 chain gun mounted under its fuselage.

With a firing rate of 620 rounds per minute, that gun can shred through boats and drones in a heartbeat.

And every Apache carries 1,200 rounds of ammunition to ensure it can fire again and again at multiple targets.

A single second burst of fire rattles off about 10 rounds.

That’s more than enough to destroy the types of threats that the Apache will be dealing with in the Straight of Hormuz.

The US also has options beyond hellfire missiles for its attack chopper.

Stinger missiles, A9 side winders, sidearms, and mistrals can also be loaded into the Apache on a missionby-m mission basis, giving us some air-to-air firepower that it can unleash if Iran is stupid enough to deploy any of its airframes in its ancient air force against the US.

The Apache also comes loaded with an electronic warfare suite, which includes radio jammers, infrared countermeasures, and interference equipment, which makes it a flying death sentence for Iranian assets operating in and around the Strait of Hormuz, even if the Apache isn’t using its main weapons.

And it gets worse for Iran.

The Apache also has the ability to carry rockets that don’t have any explosives in them.

It seems weird to claim that this is an advantage for the American chopper, but what this means is that the Apache can unleash rockets that through kinetic energy alone can crush a target.

Now, think about one of the weapons that Iran has been using in the straight of Hammuz that could be a perfect target for these kinds of rockets.

Shahid drones are taking flight every day.

And with this type of rocket, the Apache can potentially take out those drones without expending expensive explosive material.

In theory, all the rocket needs to do is hit its target, and kinetic energy does all the rest.

The Apache is also a deck hugger, which means it can fly low to the ground or close to sea level whenever needed.

So, if the US needs a chopper that can come almost face to face with the fast boats that Iran has been deploying to the straight of Hormuz, it’s just given itself the perfect option.

Let’s stick with those fast boats for a second.

While there are several reasons why the Apache is being deployed in the straight of Hormuz, which we’re going to be covering soon, dealing with the Iranian fast boats is key.

As the Wall Street Journal reported on March 19th, the use of Apache helicopters represents the start of a new campaign to reopen the Straight of Hummus after Iran had mostly combat.

This is a moment that defense analysts, weapons program managers, and air power strategists have been waiting years to see.

And the way it happened tells you everything you need to know about why the United States spent over a trillion dollars building this aircraft.

We’ll get into all of that, including the actual footage of the kill and what it reveals about both aircraft.

But first, let’s be clear about what happened on the morning of March 4th.

This wasn’t a close fight by any stretch.

But despite that, it’s useful as a demonstration of the future of air combat and how it takes only seconds for everything to go right or in the case of Iran, go wrong.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the kill on social media with a translated announcement reading, “An Israeli Air Force Adir F-35I shot down an Iranian combat aircraft, the Yak130, over the skies of Thran.” The IDF specifically called it the world’s first shootown of a manned attack jet by an F-35.

Air Force commander Tomma Bar personally congratulated the pilot shortly after the engagement.

The never team air base commander identified publicly only as Brigadier General D later added the operational details.

He explained that multiple types of Israeli aircraft were deployed against the hostile aircraft, but that an F-35i was specifically selected to take the shot.

The reason was straightforward.

Since the aircraft’s advanced sensors could lock onto the target quickly and accurately, its longrange missiles were exactly the right tools for the mission.

Brigadier General D described what happened inside the cockpit.

We detected it, got on it, and launched at it.

There was no overly complicated air battle here.

No dogfight or aerial scuffle.

There was a rapid response here which ended in making history in the skies of Iran.

That description is worth sitting with because the absence of a dog fight was the entire point of showcasing how exactly a potential prolonged conflict between Israel and Iran is expected to look.

On March 5, the Israeli Air Force released the cockpit footage of the engagement, and it’s genuinely remarkable material.

The video was recorded through the F-35I’s electrooptical targeting system, a stealthy forward-looking infrared and targeting sensor integrated directly into the aircraft’s fuselage.

This is unlike older generation optical systems which were mounted in an external pod.

What you can see in the footage is the Yak30 clearly visible in the F-35’s optical sights.

The video suggests the Iranian pilot may have been attempting to maneuver to engage, but defense analysts describe the Iranian aircraft’s evasive action as desperate, given that the Yak 130, while capable of carrying radar and some combat configured variants, is still primarily a light trainer and attack aircraft limited largely to short range engagements.

Ultimately, none of the attempts to evade mattered.

The F-35 had already acquired the target and was inside the kill range long before the Yak130’s pilot could have meaningfully responded.

Over the audio, the F-35 pilot can be heard saying, “Completed.

Target down.

The target is down.” Continuing to strike.

And that last phrase is significant.

The F-35i was not on an air patrol mission.

According to the Times of Israel, the Iranian aircraft took off from Meabbad airport in Thran and posed a threat to Israeli aircraft that were actively conducting strike operations against Iranian regime targets in the city.

In other words, the F-35 that shot down the Yak 130 then continued its strike mission.

It multitaskked an air-to-air kill into a pre-existing combat sorty, eliminated the threat, and kept moving.

That speaks to the operational tempo that the F-35 is designed to sustain.

There’s also an additional piece of video from a ground level perspective that surfaced on Operation Epic Fury has seen the US unleash an unprecedented barrage of aerial force against Iran’s dictatorial regime.

But somehow, the US still has a lot more left in the tank.

It has unleashed something that Iran was hoping that it would never see in the sky.

And it’s hitting Iran so hard that it must feel like the end of the world for the regime.

The A10 Warthog has been officially unleashed and it’s ready to support every aspect of America’s Operation Epic Fury.

So much of what we need to know comes from one expost.

On March 15th, US Central Command or SenCom published a series of pictures on X along with a caption that made it clear in no uncertain terms that the A-10, also known by its nickname, the Warthog, is being deployed against Iran.

The US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt 2s receive fuel in flight while supporting Operation Epic Fury.

The A10 Thunderbolt 2 can loiter for hours, standing by and ready to execute a mission whenever needed, Sentcom declared.

And that loitering capability is key to what the Warthog is doing in Iran right now.

As you’ll discover if you keep watching the video.

But for now, the pictures that Sencom shared are far more revealing than this caption claims.

The inflight refueling isn’t the headline here.

It’s what the Warthog is seen carrying in the pictures.

Army recognition highlights this, noting that Sencom’s pictures revealed the combat configuration of the Warthog, which in turn gives us some clues about how it’s being used against Iran.

The most immediate and notable weapons seen on the attack aircraft are APKWS guided rockets, which have been developed to provide the US with a lowcost means of striking targets such as drones.

Alongside those rockets are AI 9LM Sidewinder missiles and AGM65 Maverick airto ground missiles that when combined with the APKWS give the Warthog an extremely versatile combat profile.

This is flexibility in flight.

The Warthog that Sencom revealed has been stacked with enough weapons to allow for a varied number of potential attack and defense options.

Meaning these attack aircraft aren’t being used for narrow sorties.

It could be used for everything from attacking militia positions and key military nodes on the ground, taking out the drones and fast attack boats that Iran has been using to wreak havoc in the straight of Hormuz.

Add to all of this the Warthog’s ability to loiter.

To understand why that’s important, we only need to compare this attack aircraft to the fighter jets that the US has been using to wreck the Iranian regime’s military infrastructure up to this point in Operation Epic Fury.

Fighter jets, especially when attacking targets on the ground, only have one aim.

They get in, strike, and get out as fast as they can.

The higher up those jets can fly, the less risky these maneuvers are.

A fighter jet flying low to the ground is more difficult to control while avoiding obstacles due to its immense speed and can put itself on the radar of the scattered air defenses in Iran.

A warthog on the other hand can loiter.

It flies slower which offers more control for pilots flying low to the ground.

And it can stay in the skies for hours awaiting orders to strike a new target.

What this means for the US is that it gets options.

Fighter jets usually fly narrow sorties whereas warthogs can stick around in the sky waiting for orders.

And when those orders come, these aircraft can get in, strike, and get back out again, just like the fighter jets.

But then, and assuming they still have weapons on board, the Warthogs can go back to loitering until the next orders come through.

This is the key to sustained aerial firepower.

And it’s been made possible because of how well the US and Israel have done in terms of destroying Iran’s air defenses.

The Israel Defense Force, or IDF, claimed to have destroyed 80% of Iran’s air defenses within the first few days of the war.

What this means is that there are now massive pockets of clear and safe air over Iran that can’t be hit with anti-air missiles.

Iran’s air defenses are too scattered.

What’s left has likely been repositioned to protect the few valuable targets that remain on the Iranian mainland, and they’re not doing a very good job of it.

For an attack aircraft like the Warthog, the aerial superiority that the US and Israel have created over Iran provides the perfect opportunity for it to do what it does better than fighter jets.

to devastate Iran with sledgehammer strikes.

Next up are the B1s.

The US B1 pilots have pulled off an unbelievable strike on Iran that will most likely be studied in every military pilot school from now on.

This is the final blow, and it has hit so hard that Iran’s collapsing regime will never recover.

The US has just said, “Forget stealth.

We are in total destruction mode.” According to Air and Space Forces magazine, the arrival of B1 bombers in Iran signifies that the US has no intention of ending its campaign of devastating strikes against the country and its despotic regime.

That’s been confirmed by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kaine, who said on March 2nd that this work is just beginning and will continue when speaking to reporters at the Pentagon.

and continue.

It has as the US unleashed its B1 bombers on Iran almost immediately after it sent B2 bombers to strike at the heart of the country’s command and control facilities.

These B1 bombers had to make long trips.

Like the B2s that came before, the B1’s had to fly for over 30 hours to get to Iran amid the UK refusing to allow the US to use the key bases of RAF Barefoot and Diego Garcia, the latter of which is in the Indian Ocean and would have given America’s B1 pilots a chance to land, refuel, and prepare for their strikes.

This situation has since changed, and we’ll address it later in the video, but the initial wave of strikes, the B1 pilots proved that they didn’t need anybody’s help to get the job done.

Over 30 hours in the air was nothing for America’s pilots as they followed on from the work done by their compatriots in the B2s with a bombing run that has left Iran devastated.

So the obvious question arises, what did the B1 bombers actually do in Iran? They participated in a campaign that saw the US hit over 1,250 targets during the first 48 hours of the conflict, according to Air and Space Forces magazine.

And their role was simple.

deliver a staggering 74,000lb payload into the heart of Iran.

According to the magazine, the US sent three B1s into Iran, which took part in a mission to strike Iran’s missile sites along with yet more of the command and control or C2 centers that Iran needs to keep operational if it’s to coordinate anything even resembling a war against the US.

Iran’s ballistic missile infrastructure was the key in these B1 strikes, and we’ll explain why in just a few minutes.

But first, we mentioned 74,000lb payloads.

Multiply that by three for the number of B1s that the US sent in Iran, and you get an insane maximum of 222,000 lb of explosive fury delivered to Iran in a single mission.

And fury is the right word.

Both for the US operation, which has been named Operation Epic Fury, and for what the B1 bomber can pack into its base.

We don’t know precisely which weapons the USB B1’s used in Iran, but the pilots of these bombers would have been spoiled for choice, as almost everything that it can deliver has the ability to utterly ruin a target.

On the standard bomb front, a B1 can be loaded with up to 84 Mark 82 dumb bombs, each of which weighs 500 lb.

The aircraft can also carry 24 Mark 84 generalurpose bombs, each weighing £2,000.

Mark 62s, which weigh 500 lb each, and Mark 65 quick strike naval mines can also be loaded into the bomber, though it seems unlikely that the latter would have been used in the B1 sorties in Iraq.

As for the other bombs, all three are possibilities that they would require the B1s to fly almost directly over the targets, potentially placing the bombers in range of Iran’s air defenses.

As shattered as these defenses were by the earlier B2 bombing raids and the sledgehammer strikes delivered by America’s B-52s, the possibility of a B1 takedown by Iran was likely enough to keep the American bombers from flying directly over their targets.

But the US didn’t need direct flight.

The odds are that it used the B1s to deliver firepower from a distance to destroy Iran’s missile facilities and C2 centers.

As the US Air Force points out, the B1 can be loaded with 24 2,000lb GBU31 joint direct attack munitions or JDAMs.

Alternatively, it can carry up to missilebased strategy.

Now, something the US built in the 1950s is crushing all of the weapons Iran wanted to use in 2026.

The B-52 Strata Fortress has been unleashed, and it’s conducting some of the most devastating strikes that Iran has seen so far.

Iran’s missiles are no more, and its regime is facing up to a very simple fact.

This is just the beginning.

We’ll tell you why that is later in the video.

First, here’s what the US has been doing with its B-52s now that it’s established air superiority, and some might even say supremacy over Iran in the wake of the US and Israel destroying 80% of Iran’s air defenses.

The week leading up to March 9th has seen the US unleash constant strikes against Iran after its stealth bombers and fighter jets crippled the air defenses that Iran could have used to stop those strikes.

The B-52 has been at the heart of these attacks as US Central Command has made clear by releasing footage of these old bombers taking off on route to the country.

What we have here is the Sledgehammer after the surgical strikes.

The US is able to use the oldest bomber that it has in its fleet to fly deep within Iranian territory now that the air defense threat has been practically canceled out.

The B-52 pilots still have to be careful.

Isolated air defense systems still remain, though America’s bombers are getting a helping hand from several sources that we’ll uncover in a moment.

But what the US is now doing is using its B-52s to rain down immense amounts of firepower on Iran.

And those bombers have one type of target that they’re hitting with abandon Iran’s missile infrastructure.

Max Afterburner explains more, stating that America’s F-22 and F-35 stealth airframes have taken out whatever defenses that Iran had.

EA18G Growlers have also helped to create safe aerial corridors inside Iran, which allow the B-52s to fly directly where they need to go to strike targets.

Those other airframes are creating a pathway for the B-52 Strata Fortress to make its way into Iran and do some big things as we’re seeing because the B-52 is hammering what’s left of the missile network from Iran, hammering the production facilities as well.

After sets, the war zone or TWWZ expands on what America’s B-52s have been doing, noting that the first of these bombers that arrived in Iran attacked intelligently as Iran’s air defenses were being crippled.

That first wave of B-52s arrived from bases in the United States, conducting 30 plus hour round trips in the process to deliver AGM158 JSUM missiles to targets throughout the country.

This approach overcame the lack of stealth in the B-52 itself.

The AGM158 is a stealthy cruise missile that could pass by Iran’s air defenses undetected.

Firing those missiles from a distance, perhaps even from outside of Iran’s airspace via bases in Iraq or friendly Gulf countries, allowed the US to hit hard with its aging bombers without risking them to Iran’s air defenses.

The situation has changed with the latest strikes.

As for Iran is feeling the pain from what the US is doing.

After Burner’s mentions of America using B-52s to take out what’s left of Iran’s missile infrastructure demonstrate a clear tactic at play, and it’s working.

According to I24 News, Israel is claiming that about 70% of Iran’s missile launches have been taken out of permission already, which has severely limited Iran’s ability to strike back at the US or Israel.

Iran has been able to salvage some of its damaged launchers.

The outlet reports they’re being moved into underground facilities that are being targeted with bunker busting bombs, so they’re not much use even if they’re repaired.

The Wall Street Journal adds that Iran’s missile threat has been so thoroughly degraded that what was meant to be a saturation strategy has devolved into Iran taking risky pot shots at its enemies with its limited launches.

Iran’s ballistic missile launches are down 90% compared to the first day of the war by March 6th.

And it seems that Iran has been forced to focus on persistent small strikes ahead of the volume that it favors.

All due to B-52s and the other airframes that have been crippling its missile network.

So the US strategy here is simple.

Keep hitting Iran’s missiles hard and persistence will degrade into non-existence.

That’s what we’ve seen of the most recent use of the B-52 in Iran.

After Burner explains, noting that just 2 hours before he published his March 9th analysis, footage was released of…