When 'Operation Epic Fury' was at its height, an Iranian F-5 fighter jet attacked Camp Buehring—a US defence base in Kuwait—an operational report said. Camp Buehring was heavily protected by a multi-layered US air defence deployment, including Patriot systems, but suffered numerous damages in the bombing mission carried out by the Cold War-era supersonic jet.
According to reports, storage warehouses, hangars, satellite communications infrastructure, airstrips, radar systems, and dozens of military aircraft were among the targets hit by the Iranian aerial assault. It is thus another feather in the cap of the Islamic Republic, which scored a rare hit at a major US military base protected by a multi-layered defence system using a manned fighter aircraft. Earlier, the country had also become the first to register a successful drone hit at an operational US base.
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On the other hand, the incident contradicts claims by US President Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu regarding having taken out the Iranian Air Force and Navy in the initial weeks of the war.
Embarrassment for US, moral booster for Iran
The success story is even greater because the F-5 aircraft is not equipped with modern radars or sophisticated guidance systems that could help with precision bombing. The aircraft has no stealth qualities—meaning it should be regular prey for the likes of Patriot systems—and thus a conventional bombing mission on a US airbase was considered suicidal.
It is said that the Iranian F-5 aircraft flew at a low altitude and succeeded in evading detection and response from Patriot systems and close-range air defence networks. The multi-layered defence systems were designed to form overlapping interception zones but failed epically to stop the incoming bombing.
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"This is particularly important because Patriot batteries are typically optimised for high-performance missile threats, while short-range interceptor systems are supposed to cover weaknesses against low-altitude aircraft threats. The fact that the F-5 aircraft, considered an old platform, is still capable of exploiting the gap raises serious questions about the limits of the radar horizon and the response time of operational command," Defence Security Asia said in a report.
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The fate of the aircraft and pilot involved in the attack remains unknown. However, whether the jet made its way back home or was shot down midway doesn't change the fact that it scored a historic victory against great odds. The bombing mission was not just a strategic victory for Tehran but also an underlining of the fact that even the most advanced multi-layered defence systems remain vulnerable.
