As of March 12, 2026, the United States altered the tactical structure of Operation “Epic Fury,” deploying A-10 Warthog attack aircraft—a direct close air support platform—against Iran-backed militias. This retaliatory move, following a drone attack the previous night on a coalition base in Erbil that caused damage to both civilian and military areas and resulted in the death of a French soldier, indicates that the U.S. has shifted from strategic bombing to precision strikes targeting enemy trenches and logistics lines.
Tactical Pressure in Mosul and Baghdad
The first wave of the operation targeted the 30th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), stationed south of Mosul, and the Al Sakkr military facility on the outskirts of Baghdad. Footage confirms that low-altitude dive runs conducted by A-10 aircraft using their nose-mounted 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger cannons neutralized armored vehicle inventories and ammunition depots in open terrain.
With the hourly operating cost of these platforms at around $6,000, the U.S. military is able to wage a long-term, cost-effective war of attrition. As former CIA Director David Petraeus noted, the fact that the U.S. can comfortably patrol its airspace with unhidden aircraft indicates that air superiority has been fully established.
Operational Casualties and Information Warfare
In an asymmetric warfare environment, technological superiority does not completely eliminate logistical and personnel losses. During ongoing operations, six U.S. personnel lost their lives when a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft conducting in-flight refueling in western Iraq crashed.
Although CENTCOM stated that the incident was not caused by enemy fire, the Iran-backed “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” claimed that they shot down the aircraft to defend their own airspace. While strategic analyses indicate that the only weapon in the militias’ arsenal capable of threatening a tanker is the “358 Missile” with its maneuvering munition capabilities, radar tracks and operational data support the accident explanation. The militias’ swift adoption of this claim is viewed as a disinformation campaign aimed at covering up the systematic destruction caused by A-10 attacks and preventing a collapse in morale among their civilian base.
The Mathematics of Attrition and Iran’s Systematic Collapse
According to Pentagon data, since the start of Operation “Epic Fury,” 140 U.S. military personnel have been wounded, and the total death toll has reached 13. These statistics demonstrate the continuous attrition—both in terms of equipment and psychological wear and tear—that low-intensity asymmetric conflicts inflict on conventional armies.
However, this attrition war is evolving into a systematic breakdown on the Iranian side, going beyond mere operational costs. The U.S. has directly intervened in Iran’s internal front using B-2 Spirit aircraft and GBU-57 bunker-busting bombs, targeting massive underground ballistic missile facilities in Khorramabad and Tabriz. Planet Labs data reveals that the entrances, ventilation shafts, and support buildings of these facilities, located hundreds of meters underground, have been rendered inoperable.
Experts predict that the failure of the proxy power network and underground deterrence complexes—built with budgets amounting to billions of dollars—to withstand direct American firepower has caused an irreparable loss of military and political legitimacy for the Tehran regime.
