In purely conventional terms, the U.S. and Iranian militaries don’t stack up. The former is the world’s most lethal, professional and technologically advanced, possessing capabilities and intelligence assets that America’s adversaries could only dream of. The latter is a relic that belongs in a museum; Iran’s air force relies on aircraft that are decades old, its troops are proficient at killing civilians but not much else; and its navy, or what’s left of it, is geared more toward harassing larger ships than confronting them head-on.
With the war now entering its sixth day, Iran is at its weakest and most vulnerable since the dawn of the Islamic Republic nearly 50 years ago. The United States and Israel have launched hundreds of airstrikes hitting an array of Iranian targets, from ports and ballistic missile facilities to air defences and government buildings. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, the Iranian parliament is in ashes, and the Iranian military’s command-and-control is severely depleted. And as U.S. defence secretary Pete Hegseth boasted at the Pentagon on Wednesday: “We are just getting started.”
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