To understand how the US military would neutralize Iran’s air-defense network in order to open corridors for strategic bombers—potentially forcing the current regime to flee to survive—it helps to examine how Washington operated in Venezuela.
The concept would be similar in principle, though strikes on Iran would be far more intense and threatening.
US aerial operations began in mid-November 2025, when an RC-135 Rivet electronic reconnaissance aircraft flew along Venezuela’s coast, escorted by F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters near Caracas. These missions electronically mapped the battlefield by monitoring radar emissions and pinpointing command-and-control centers.
Leaked images later revealed radar “coverage bubbles” extracted from Venezuela’s integrated air-defense command system, showing a layered, overlapping structure designed for redundancy. US electronic intelligence, however, identified a key weakness: poor low-altitude radar coverage. The objective was therefore not total destruction, but disruption—paralyzing coordination and operational effectiveness.
