{"id":1667512,"date":"2026-03-05T04:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1667512"},"modified":"2026-03-05T04:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T09:20:00","slug":"how-operation-epic-fury-unfolded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/how-operation-epic-fury-unfolded\/1667512\/","title":{"rendered":"How Operation Epic Fury Unfolded"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Operation Epic Fury Unfolded<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

The Pentagon had been choreographing a prospective massive attack on Iran since 1980, but it wasn\u2019t until December 2025 that U.S. President Donald Trump, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, told military planners to give him that devastating option<\/strong> in case the fundamentalist Shia regime refused to end its uranium enrichment program.<\/p>\n

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Public Domain, Shutterstock<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

With that request, the countdown to Operation Epic Fury kicked off.<\/p>\n

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine told<\/a> reporters during a March 2 press conference that with the president\u2019s December request, the Pentagon began \u201csetting the force and setting the theater\u201d and shifted forces into place over the previous 30 days to \u201cprovide the president with credible options should action be required.\u201d<\/p>\n

After U.S. negotiators, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, left Geneva on Feb. 26 without concessions from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the die was cast.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next day<\/strong>, the president called the Pentagon from Air Force One as it was en route to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he was scheduled to campaign for Republican primary candidates.<\/p>\n

Caine recalled the exact moment he got the call: \u201cH hour,\u201d a military term for the time at which an operation begins, was 3:38 p.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 27, when the Pentagon \u201creceived the final go order from President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine holds a briefing about the U.S.\u2013Israeli conflict with Iran, at the Pentagon in Washington on March 2, 2026. Elizabeth Frantz\/Reuters<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president directed, and I quote: \u2018Operation Epic Fury is approved. No aborts. Good luck,\u2019\u201d Caine said.<\/p>\n

With that one call, he said, \u201cacross the globe, [U.S. military] operation centers came alive,\u201d and Adm. Brad Cooper, Central Command commander at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, assumed operational command in the theater.<\/p>\n

When Trump issued the \u201cgo order\u201d at 3:38 p.m. Feb. 27, it was just after midnight Feb. 28 in Tehran. In the nearly 10 hours between H hour and the actual launch of the attack, Caine said, \u201cin the region, every element of the joint force made their final preparations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAir defense batteries readied themselves, checking their systems to respond to Iranian attacks<\/strong>,\u201d he said. \u201cPilots and crews rehearsed their strike packages for the final time. Air crews began loading their final weapons, and two carrier strike groups began to move towards their launching point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plumes of smoke rise over the skyline following explosions in Tehran, Iran, on March 1, 2026. Majid Saeedi\/Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs dawn crept up, across the Central Command [area of operations], skies surged to life,\u201d Caine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 100 aircraft launched from land and sea\u2014fighters, tankers, airborne early warning, electronic attack, bombers from the states, and unmanned platforms\u2014forming a single synchronized wave<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That wave arrived over Iran at 1:15 a.m. EST, 9:45 a.m. in Tehran.<\/p>\n

That timeline was accelerated by \u201ca trigger event conducted by the Israeli Defense Forces, enabled by the U.S. intelligence community\u201d from the standard night attack to a mid-morning opening salvo that killed Iranian leader Ali Khamenei and up to 48 of the nation\u2019s military leaders at a Tehran compound.<\/p>\n

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Public Domain<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

That was among more than 1,000 targets struck in the first<\/a> 24 hours of the aerial, missile, and drone assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe full strength of America\u2019s armed forces came together in a unified purpose against a capable and determined adversary,\u201d Caine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis deployment included thousands of service members from all branches, hundreds of advanced fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, dozens of refueling tankers, the Lincoln and Ford carrier strike groups and their embarked air wings, sustained flow of munitions, fuel supplies … all supported with command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance network. And the flow of forces continues today.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Top) Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG 121), Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler USNS Henry J. Kaiser (T-AO-187), Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Carl Brashear (T-AKE 7), and U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class fast-response cutters USCG Robert Goldman (WPC-1142) and USCGC Clarence Sutphin. Jr. (WPC-1147) sail in formation in the Arabian Sea, on Feb. 6, 2026. (Bottom Left) An F\/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 14, prepares to land on the flight deck of aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) during Operation Epic Fury at Sea on March 1, 2026. (Bottom Right) U.S. sailors prepare to stage ordnance on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 28, 2026. Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jesse Monford\/U.S. Navy via Getty Images, U.S. Navy via Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s highest-ranking military officer laid out the order of battle and what forces, as of March 2, were engaged in Operation Epic Fury, a rapid assembly of forces that \u201cdemonstrated the joint forces ability to adapt and project power at the time and place of [the United States\u2019] choosing\u201d that included \u201cseveral combat firsts\u201d to be made public \u201cat some point in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the first missile struck, Caine said, \u201cthe first movers\u201d were Space Force, Army, and Air Force electronics and cyber warfare technicians \u201clayering non-kinetic effects, disrupting and degrading and blinding Iran\u2019s ability to see, communicate, and respond.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Iranian communications disrupted and its air defenses \u201cwithout the ability to see, coordinate, or respond effectively,\u201d U.S. and Israeli air forces, with \u201cswift, precise, and overwhelming strikes,\u201d established local air superiority immediately, he said, setting the stage for a campaign the Pentagon maintains it can sustain, and expand if needed, for weeks.<\/p>\n

Combat Firsts<\/h2>\n

With Iranian air defenses hacked or blinded before the opening salvo, the assault began<\/a> with waves of Tomahawk cruise missiles\u2014long-range precision weapons capable of striking targets hundreds of miles inland\u2014launched by the aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea and USS Gerald R. Ford in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and their battlegroup destroyers.<\/p>\n

The USS Gerald R. Ford, which had been deployed to the region in June 2025 during the 12-Day War that badly damaged, but did not destroy, Iran\u2019s uranium enrichment program and was then dispatched to the southern Caribbean to lead Operation Southern Spear off Venezuela, was ordered back to the Sixth Fleet in January and is now in its eighth month of sustained operations.<\/p>\n

It is to be relieved eventually by the USS George H.W. Bush, a Nimitz-class carrier undergoing post-overhaul sea trials.<\/p>\n

With missiles outbound, hundreds of Air Force F-15s, F-16s, and stealth F-22 Raptors merged with carrier-launched F\/A-18 Hornets, stealth F-35s, and EA-18G electronic warfare jets in the massive aerial attack against Iranian air defenses and missile-launch sites.<\/p>\n

The fighters were later joined by Air Force stealth B-2 Spirit bombers that flew 17 hours from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, which had struck suspected nuclear complexes with 30,000-pound \u201cpenetrator\u201d munitions in June 2025.<\/p>\n

(Top Left) A U.S. F-15 fighter plane prepares for landing in Mildenhall, England, on Jan. 7, 2026. (Top Right) B-2 Spirit Bombers fly over the White House on July 4, 2025. (Bottom Left) A U.S. F-35 fighter plane takes off in Mildenhall, England, on Jan. 7, 2026. (Bottom Right) A U.S. Air Force F22-Raptor takes off in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, on Jan. 4, 2026. Dan Kitwood\/Getty Images, Eric Lee\/Getty Images, Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In the opening phases of the Feb. 28 assault, they targeted ballistic missile sites with 2,000-pound precision-guided bombs<\/strong>, confirming that the focus was on degrading Iran\u2019s air defenses and communications.<\/p>\n

Ground-based Army precision strike missiles from the M142 high-mobility artillery rocket system mounted on \u201cshoot and scoot\u201d mobile launchers added to the fray, lobbing short-range ballistics into Iran from bases in the Gulf states, the first time the short-range ballistic missile system was used in combat.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon has acknowledged that Operation Epic Fury is also the debut of a new low-cost \u200cuncrewed combat attack system (LUCAS) drone\u2014a one-way \u201csuicide\u201d drone reverse-engineered to mimic Iran\u2019s Shahed 136 drone, which it has exported en masse to Russia for use in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Among the forces participating in the attack are Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones carrying Hellfire missiles and guided bombs, twin-engine A-10 attack aircraft directed by E-3 Sentry and E-2 Hawkeye airborne surveillance and EA-11A BACN \u201cWi-Fi in the sky\u201d reconnaissance jets, and KC-135 and KC-46 aerial refueling tankers.<\/p>\n

Under attack from Iranian and Shia militias, there are about 2,400 U.S. soldiers in Syria and Iraq, including in Erbil, Iraq.<\/p>\n

About 2,000 are from the Iowa National Guard, who are to be relieved by a unit from the 10th Mountain Division this spring.<\/p>\n

At least 250 guardsmen left Iraq in mid-February, and on Feb. 27\u2014before the attack was launched\u2014the Iowa National Guard announced that 650 more were headed home.<\/p>\n

It is uncertain what their status is now.<\/p>\n

The U.S. base in Erbil is among installations across the region under sporadic Iranian and militia attacks.<\/p>\n

Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth have not ruled out dispatching \u201cboots on the ground,\u201d although there is no indication that Army and Marine infantry forces have been ordered to deploy.<\/p>\n

Read the rest\u00a0here…<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 03\/04\/2026 – 23:20<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/how-operation-epic-fury-unfolded<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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