Epic Fury: What New Arms Are in Play

While most of the weapons used in Epic Fury might have been deployed in the past, it is a war of firsts. Newly-designed weapons and reliable long-serving war horses are complemented by the latest innovation, including in artificial intelligence. The war is marked by the use of AI tools, killer drones, longer-range ballistic missiles, new penetrating bombs, upgraded air defense systems, and unprecedented coordination between the Israeli and American militaries. Yet one of the newest Epic Fury stars is not new at all. Detractors of the A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog” attack plane have long advocated taking it out of commission. Now it is a top tool in defending freedom of navigation.“It’s like everything old is new again,” the editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, Bill Roggio, tells The New York Sun. He adds that he is a long-time fan of the A-10 and its performance in battle. The “Warthog is now in the fight across the southern flank and is hunting and killing fast attack watercraft in the Strait of Hormuz,” the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Dan Caine, an airman himself, told reporters last week. The 12-day in June war was won by 30,000 pound bombs, or Massive Ordnance Penetrators, which were dropped by B-2 stealth bombers on Iran’s nuclear installations at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. Epic Fury adds B-1 and B-52 bombers, an Israeli researcher of missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and space technology, Tal Inbar, tells the Sun. Using these bombers, “the U.S. military dropped 5,000-pound penetrator weapons into the underground storage facilities storing coastal defense cruise missiles and other support equipment,” General Caine said. America joined the 12-day war after nearly two weeks in which the Israeli Air Force acted nearly alone over Iran’s sky. In Epic Fury, by contrast, “the two most powerful air forces in the world,” as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called them, worked in tandem from the very start, at a coordination level rarely seen in war. Artificial Intelligence: Work in ProgressCoordinating two militaries equipped with 21st century highly sophisticated systems is a complex task. Remarkably, while Iranian skies are crowded with fighter jets and bombers of the two allies, no friendly fire incidents were reported as of this writing.Some of that coordination is governed by artificial intelligence. AI can quickly interpret satellite imaging, home in on enemy threats, and synchronize multi strikes to be conducted at the same time. This war is fought at the dawn of this new technology. “Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot and when to shoot,” the commander of the U.S. Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, said recently. Yet, he added, “advanced AI tools can turn processes that used to take hours and sometimes even days into seconds.”The Warthog: a Reliable War HorseWhile Pentagon-types have long lobbied to retire the A-10, known as Warthog, the small, low-flying attack plane is being praised now as one of the best tools to hunt such small targets as armed speedboats in the Hormuz Straits. If you’re in such a boat and an A-10 hovers above, “you better have your life preserver on,” Mr. Roggio says. The A-10 is “almost a perfect weapon system for close air support and missions like that,” he adds. The arms manufacturers are intent on developing big budget items, like the F-35 fighter jet, which costs $200 million a unit. The $20 million A-10 is less attractive to them, so they’re lobbying to retire it. Yet “there is also an A-10 fan club, which I’m part of,” Mr. Roggio says. Drones: Ukraine’s ContributionIran has excelled in manufacturing suicide drones, a relatively cheap weapon that can be difficult and expensive to intercept. Tehran sold to Russia a large number of such Shahed 131 and Shahed 136 UAVs, which wreaked havoc in Ukraine.The Ukrainians reversed-engineered unexploded Shaheds to develop defense against them. America also studied the Iranian UAVs and created an upgraded drone, the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System. In the current war Iran mostly uses Shahed-type weapons for attacking the Gulf states. Counter-drone systems developed by Ukrainians and Americans intercept up to 90 percent of the incoming UAVs. American LUCAS drones are used to strike Iranian targets, supplementing Israeli and American manned planes that carry the bulk of the workload. Laser Defense: Next war phaseKilling an Iranian drone that costs $20,000 with a $4 million American-made missile increases the asymmetrical nature of this asymmetric war. Israel’s Iron Beam system, first used in the 2024 war against Hezbollah, was created to answer that cost gap: Hitting a flying object with a concentrated laser beam costs as little as a few bucks.The Iron Beam has been deployed in the current war as well, and America has reportedly used laser systems to defend naval vessels in the Gulf. For now, though, laser-based defense systems are limited in scope, designed to intercept drones, rockets, and mortar shells, rather than ballistic missiles. They are largely ineffective in cloudy conditions and have other limitations. Will future developments, though, turn the math of warfare upside down?Iran: Cluster Mombs and Longer-Range MissilesWhile the Islamic Republic used cluster bombs at the end of the June 12-day war, its prevalence in the current war is qualitatively different. Rather than challenge Israel’s multi-level air defenses, the Iranians are equipping their ballistic missiles with warheads that break into small payloads to spread over large areas.Israel’s defense systems proved effective against the Iranian Khorramshahr ballistic missile, which can be equipped with a 40,000 pound payload. In this war Iran extensively loaded the missile with multiple bomblets of 11 pound payload. Israelis cowering in bomb shelters or safe rooms are fully protected. Yet deaths, injuries, and structural damage have been recorded. “A defense does exist,” Mr. Inbar says. Cluster bomblets, he notes, are similar to mortars from Gaza or Lebanon that Israel intercepts with the Iron Dome. As yet, though, that system has not been utilized to counter Iran’s cluster attacks. Meanwhile, two Iranians intermediate-range ballistic missiles launched at the joint British-American airbase at Diego Garcia raised concerns about the Islamic Republic’s hidden arsenal. The regime’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Iran has limited the range of its missiles to 1,250 miles. Diego Garcia, though, is 2,500 miles from Iran, which indicates the Islamic Republic can hit targets far beyond the Gulf or Israel. The Tehran foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei denied on Monday that it launched missiles at Diego Garcia, calling it an “Israeli false flag.” The denial was widely dismissed, as western officials warn that Iran might possess intercontinental ballistic missiles that can be tipped with nuclear warheads. In reality, “European capitals have been within Iran’s missile range for years,” Mr. Inbar says, adding that reports that the Islamic Republic has ICBMs are unverified.

Epic Fury: What New Arms Are in Play

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