“War is the great auditor of institutions.” So wrote the British military historian Correlli Barnett. What, then, does the war with Iran reveal about the state of U.S. military power?
The first, and most obvious, lesson is the potency of U.S. precision-strike capabilities. Since the start of Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, U.S. and Israeli forces have hit more than 15,000 targets without losing any aircraft to enemy air defenses. (Five U.S. Air Force planes were damaged on the ground in Saudi Arabia by an Iranian missile strike, while three were lost to friendly fire and one in a fatal accident.)