On June 13, 2025, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, a massive campaign targeting Iran’s nuclear program, air defenses, ballistic missile infrastructure, and senior military leaders and nuclear scientists. Within hours, Israel Defense Forces claimed that they had control of the skies from the western border of the country to Tehran. They didn’t accomplish this with airpower alone, but with covertly placed anti-tank missiles and small drones launched from inside Iran.

Months before any Israeli planes crossed into Iranian airspace, Mossad operatives were smuggling in explosives, drone parts, equipment to assemble the drones, and Spike Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) missiles and launchers. Iranian state media even reported that they discovered a three-story building that was functioning as a drone factory in Shahr-e Rey, a suburb-like area near Tehran.

In the opening of Rising Lion, Israeli operators, safely outside Iran, launched those small drones concealed in trucks, trailers, and other vehicles, as well as Spike NLOS missiles at key air defense radars and missile batteries along with ballistic missiles and launchers. The delivery method strongly resembles Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web, which destroyed at least a dozen of Russia’s strategic bombers deep inside the country. In similar fashion, Israel is suspected to have used Iran’s cellular network against itself to control the drones and missiles. This one-two punch severely degraded Iran’s major air defenses as well as their ability to launch a counter-attack via ballistic missiles.

Minutes after the Spikes and drones hit their targets, more than 200 Israeli aircraft, including F-35I “Adirs”, F-15-I “Ra’ams”, and F-16I “Soufas”, all specialized versions of existing U.S. airframes designed for export to Israel, struck more than a hundred targets in Iran. The F-15I and F-16I are fourth-generation non-stealth aircraft that are more vulnerable to Iranian air defenses than the F-35, but were dropping Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) on the first night. To target the underground missile storage bunkers, Israel also had to use bunker busters like the GBU-72, which are carried by their F-15 variants. Because JDAMs and bunker busters are dropped from above the targets, putting them in range of air defenses near them, this implies Israel had near-complete control of Iranian skies almost immediately.

The success of the operation was evident in Iran’s initial response, called True Promise III, which was comparatively small when looking at previous Iranian strikes on Israel. During True Promise I, in April of 2024, Iran launched over 200 drones, rockets, and missiles toward Israel, according to Israeli media. This time around, just 100 drones got airborne, and no ballistic missiles took flight.

Despite claims from the Iranian government, no manned aircraft have been confirmed to have been shot down. Given how heavily defended Iranian airspace is, especially near their nuclear research facilities at Fordow and Natanz, it speaks volumes as to how compromised Iran’s air defenses really were and how successful the Spikes and drones were.

This operation also reinforces, just like Spider Web did, how vulnerable major systems are to small drones and even anti-tank missiles. While Iran was looking to the sky with their advanced and costly air defense systems, they were taken out from the ground using cheap drones and guided missiles that first entered service in 1981. As we’ve written about previously, the United States lacks the defenses against this kind of attack, both at home and abroad, and that gap in protection is becoming harder to ignore.

Check out our most recent video on Task & Purpose YouTube as we dive into how Iran lost control of its airspace during Israel’s attack last month.

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