What is "Air Superiority" Over Iran
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| B-1 bombers are among the aircraft that the U.S. Air Force is using in Iran.Henry Nicholls/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
The American and Israeli air forces have a dominant advantage in the skies, but Iran can still muster some resistance
The U.S. military has achieved “total air dominance” in the war with Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asserted this week. Israel, America’s partner in the conflict, says it has gained “air superiority.”
American and Israeli fighters streak largely uncontested through Iranian skies. A blizzard of bombing has decimated the Iranian air force and destroyed hundreds of missile launchers and air defense systems. The two militaries have been able to hit thousands of Iranian targets, American and Israeli officials say.
But Iran continues to launch retaliatory strikes. So what exactly does air superiority mean?
Air Power
The United States and Israel have deployed hundreds of fighters and bombers — the largest air armada assembled in decades — to attack about 7,000 targets in Iran over nearly two weeks.
Among the U.S. aircraft being used are B-1 bombers and B-2 stealth bombers as well as B-52 bombers, which can carry a huge payload: 70,000 pounds of munitions.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday during a news conferenc e with Mr. Hegseth that bombers had dropped dozens of 2,000-pound penetrating bombs on deeply buried missile launchers and drone factories. The goal in these attacks on the Iranians, General Caine said, was to “get at the heart of their autonomous capability.”
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| Gen. Dan Caine standing with other men in uniform. |
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last week. He said that the United States and Israel were going after Iran’s military and industrial complexes. Credit...Eric Lee for The New York Times
Five types of fighters are also flying over Iran, as is the slow-moving A-10 “Warthog,” a close-air support plane with a fearsome cannon at the tip of its nose that fires 30-millimeter shells at a clip of 70 a second.
David A. Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who was a primary architect of the 1991 Persian Gulf air campaign, said the presence of A-10s suggested that Iran’s strategic air defenses had been destroyed or suppressed. The plane is more vulnerable to air defenses than fighters are.
“In air-campaign terms, the A-10 is a confidence signal,” he said. He said the plane was very effective against smaller military units, naval boats, mobile launchers and radars.
Streaking above all these planes is the U-2 “Dragon Lady.” This aircraft flies at an altitude beyond the reach of any Iranian weapon, gathering information about potential targets.
Air Superiority
Air superiority means a dominant advantage in the skies over a theater of war. The objective is to “secure the air over the friendly forces and to open it up over the enemies,” according to Stephen Renner of the Air War College in Alabama.
The concept dates back more than 100 years. It was championed by an Italian general, Giulio Douhet, who argued in his 1921 book “The Command of the Air” that air superiority was crucial to winning a war.
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| An MQ-9 Reaper drone on the tarmac. |
An MQ-9 Reaper drone at Rafael HernĂ¡ndez Airport in Aguadilla, P.R., in December.Credit...Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The United States and Israel have greatly diminished the Iranian military’s ability to retaliate against or menace American and Israeli warplanes. The Americans have also blasted dozens of Iranian naval ships and other targets as they try to cripple Iran’s ability to threaten the Strait of Hormuz, an important waterway for transporting oil.
But the two countries still face risks from the dwindling number of Iranian air-defense systems and mobile missile launchers that can “shoot and scoot” to avoid detection from American surveillance aircraft.
On Friday, U.S. Central Command said that four Americans had died in the crash of a refueling plane the day before, an example of the dangers that persist in maintaining control of the skies. The U.S. military said the crash had not been caused by hostile fire.
General Deptula said Iran most likely still possessed mobile surface-to-air missiles and Manpads, short for Man-Portable Air Defense Systems. Since the start of the war, Iran has used such systems to down a dozen MQ-9 Reaper drones, the workhorse of American aerial reconnaissance.
Amikam Norkin, a former commander of the Israeli Air Force, said the risk to U.S. and Israeli airplanes was low but not zero.
“There’s still a threat,” he said, particularly from drones. The goal for Israel and the United States, he added, is to maintain “air superiority in the areas that you would like to act.”
Air Supremacy
General Deptula said that the United States and Israel had achieved “persistent air superiority approaching air supremacy.”
Air supremacy means that an “opposing force is incapable of effective interference within the operational area using air and missile threats,” according to the Pentagon.
In the 1991 Persian Gulf war and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. fighters and bombers had air supremacy — total command of the skies. Similar to Iran, Iraq had formidable air defenses, but the United States and its allies quickly dismantled them. That allowed fast-moving U.S. aircraft to conduct precision strikes without fear of being shot down.
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| A fighter plane flying over mountains. |
An F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter in 2012 over Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, where U.S. bombers and jets had air supremacy.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
The same was true in the American-led war in Afghanistan, but low-flying helicopters were still vulnerable to ground fire from the Taliban.
General Caine said on Tuesday that U.S. attack helicopters, along with fighters, were intercepting Iran’s formidable one-way attack drones in the south, where the United States is conducting most of its operations.
Mr. Hegseth said this week that the United States “is winning.” But military experts say that control of the air alone will not deliver victory.
General Caine, a former Air Force F-16 pilot, said that the United States and Israel were broadly going after Iran’s military and industrial complexes. A century ago, General Douhet, the Italian military theorist, identified these as essential targets in a successful war.
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