What Happened
Tehran's Low-Cost Drones Prove Effective Against American Airpower
The US air campaign against Iran, which included six weeks of intensive bombing, ultimately failed to achieve its objectives, despite achieving air superiority over large swaths of southern and western Iran. Iran’s strategy of using low-cost drones and missiles to target commercial vessels and the US Navy in the Strait of Hormuz proved effective, making the waterway too costly and dangerous to transit. The US military’s lack of capabilities like mobile air defenses and mass-produced interceptors hindered its ability to respond to the Iranian threat, according to Breaking Defense.