A satellite image shows airstrike craters covered with dirt at the Natanz Enrichment Facility, following U.S. airstrikes amid the Iran-Israel conflict, in Natanz County, Iran, June 24, 2025. (photo credit: Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS )
Leading up to Operation Rising Lion, Israeli satellites took millions of photos of multiple locations in Iran, the Defense Ministry announced.
Israeli satellites took tens of millions of photos of Iran leading up to, and during, the recent war, the Defense Ministry announced.
Comprehensive space-based intelligence gathering captured tens of millions of square kilometers through day-night surveillance, producing over 12,000 satellite images of Iranian territory.
Since the Islamic Republic spans approximately 1.6 million square kilometers and much of the Israeli operation focused on the Tehran area and Western Iran, parts of Iran needed to be photographed extensively.
This also means that Israel’s satellites were surveilling hundreds of different targets per day, the ministry said.
Overall, Israeli satellites surveilled hundreds of thousands of sq.km. in Iran on a daily basis.
A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex, after the U.S. struck the underground nuclear facility, near Qom, Iran June 22, 2025. (credit: Maxar Technologies/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS )
With Israel reaching a new level of power, quality, and volume in satellite use, the ministry said that the Jewish state has also shifted its use of satellites from only receiving an intermittent snapshot of the status of a specific spot in Iran for general analysis, to being able to maintain real-time constant tactical and operational surveillance of many places all over the Islamic Republic.
The launch of the Ofek 13 satellite
Ergo, satellites have proved useful against Iran in terms of altering live Israel Air Force attacks based on real-time analysis of the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile shooting patterns and trends.
Further, the satellites were able to achieve new levels of immediate battle damage assessments, enabling them to quickly determine the effectiveness of strikes against targets in Iran.
They were also used to determine the extent to which additional aerial sorties against a target may be necessary, and regarding complex and large objectives, which portion of such a target needed to be struck again, as opposed to portions of the objective that were already destroyed.
There were also significant advantages during the war with Iran in terms of the quality of surveillance from newer satellites, such as the Ofek 13, which was introduced into use in March 2023.
The Ofek 13 satellite, developed jointly by the ministry and the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), was launched using a Shavit 2 satellite launcher from an open space in the center of the country.
At the time, Avi Berger, the head of the Defense Ministry’s Space Directorate, said, “The launch was successful. It went according to plan. The first indications from the satellite are also excellent. In the coming weeks, we will complete the technical tests and receive the first images.”
Besides the ministry and the IAI, the development and production of the satellite were carried out cooperatively with several other IDF divisions, including the 9900 Unit and the air force.
Back then, Berger had said that the “Ofek 13 is a radar-based observation satellite with the most advanced capabilities of its kind in the world, all of which are the result of Israeli development.”
