The U.S. military’s largest air campaign in a generation struck more than 13,000 targets in Iran between Feb. 28 and an initial ceasefire in early April, and the former commander of Air Forces Central says the operation exposed serious gaps in munitions logistics and base self-defense.
Lt. Gen. Derek C. France, who completed his tour as AFCENT commander and Combined Forces Air Component Commander for U.S. Central Command on Aug. 4, described the campaign in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine. Operation Epic Fury began Feb. 28 and became the biggest U.S. air offensive in 35 years. Iran has fired more than 1,500 ballistic missiles and 6,000 drones during the conflict, with numbers growing as Tehran continues to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. officials said.
France said the joint partnership between Airmen and Soldiers operating Patriot anti-missile defenses was a bright spot, and he was impressed by wings’ ability to quickly resume flight operations after Iranian missile and drone attacks on air bases across the Middle East.
“We had bases generating sorties,” France said. “Occasionally, we’d have to make some adjustments on tankers to make an effective sortie. But I never had a base that said, ‘We are not effective and we can’t meet the next three or four [windows] of ATO tasking.'”
But the logistical system for supplying munitions was insufficient in the early days of the war, forcing France to “meter the use of weapons over time.”
“Our logistics system needs some serious revamping as far as its flexibility,” France said. “You would have cases where bases say, ‘Hey, I’ve got all these bomb bodies, but I can’t use them because I don’t have the tail kits yet.'”
France also identified gaps in base defense. U.S. Patriot missiles and THAAD interceptors successfully defeated most threats, but some weapons got through. CENTCOM had not faced such threats since the 1991 Desert Shield/Desert Storm campaign, when Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles against allied forces.
“From a base defense standpoint, we’ve still got some gaps as far as long-range air domain awareness, so you’re not surprised by things once they’re in your base defense zone,” France said.
France said building command centers underground deserves consideration, arguing that critical command-and-control nodes need inherent self-protection.
“You have to have some C2 element that’s survivable underground, and if you’re going to generate airpower, you need something where your aircrew can actually get some sleep and extract themselves from that potential,” France said. “You can’t harden everything. But I do think your critical C2 nodes and your prioritized way of being able to get underground is huge.”
As CFACC, France and the Combined Air Operations Center directed strikes into Iran from Navy aircraft, submarine-launched Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, and Army ATACMS and PrSM surface-to-surface missiles. The scope of the operation forced a single integrator of fires, a role France said the CAOC improved at over time.
France took command of AFCENT on April 18, 2024. His tenure also included Operation Rough Rider against the Houthis in spring 2025 and Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025, when U.S. B-2 bombers attacked Iran’s nuclear sites. He contrasted the counterterrorism campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen with the scale of fighting Iran.
“I use the analogy with the other component commanders of the difference between using a sniper rifle and a belt-fed machine gun,” France said.
France said the punishing waves of airstrikes have now been largely supplanted by an American economic pressure campaign as Iran tries to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict is now in its seventh month.
Sources: Air & Space Forces Magazine