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Operation Epic Fury

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Operation Epic Fury is the U.S.-led, Israel-coordinated military campaign against Iran initiated by President Trump on Feb. 28, 2026. Public reporting describes strikes against Iranian leadership, naval and air power, manufacturing, and nuclear infrastructure. Whiteman AFB B-2s conducted the bomber strikes.

Relevance to UAP discourse

In the opening hours of the operation, a usnorthcom Flyaway Kit detected and defeated a small drone over an undisclosed “strategic” U.S. military installation — disclosed publicly by Gen. Gregory Guillot in Senate posture testimony (src-northcom-drone-incursion-2026-03). The launch of Epic Fury was followed by a sustained pattern of drone-incursions at strategic bomber bases, most notably the March 9-15, 2026 multi-wave swarm at barksdale-afb (src-drone-incursions-epic-fury-2026-03) and declined-to-confirm activity at Whiteman — raising concerns about Iranian retaliatory drone operations. This exemplifies the broader drone-incursion pattern driving the FY2026 NDAA UAP intercept briefing mandates.

”Jellyfish” Drone Formation Report (April 2026, reported June 2026)

CNN reported (June 23, 2026) that the F-15 pilot downed over Iran in April 2026 described, in a post-rescue debrief, an Iranian drone formation “moving as one” in a shape resembling a jellyfish — a possible instance of “one-to-many meshed networking” not previously assessed as an Iranian capability. U.S. intelligence officials were split on the account’s reliability (the pilot was concussed and had been shot down twice, once in a March friendly-fire incident over Kuwait). The War Zone’s companion analysis treats the claim skeptically, proposing alternative explanations including a static “drone minefield” screen. See jellyfish-drone-formation, src-iran-jellyfish-drone-swarm-2026-06, src-twz-jellyfish-drone-analysis-2026-06.

Counter-drone shortfall

By April 2026, the campaign had exposed a significant U.S. counter-uas gap. Iran launched thousands of Shaheds during the war; six U.S. troops were killed in Kuwait by an Iranian drone on March 1, 2026 (src-counter-drone-middle-east-jiatf-2026-04). jiatf-401 committed ~$350M of C-UAS capability to centcom in just the first ~30 days. SOF News reports the U.S. has “suffered casualties and damage to high-value aircraft” from Iranian/proxy drones (src-epic-fury-update-2026-04). The Pentagon imported the Ukrainian Sky Map C2 platform to prince-sultan-air-base — the first known U.S. operational use of Ukrainian counter-drone technology.

tom-karako (CSIS) on the surge: “[Increased investment] is dramatically overdue. But it’s not as if the drone threat snuck up on us.”

Phase 2 — Economic phase (April 2026)

Per src-epic-fury-update-2026-04:

  • A planned April 22 Islamabad ceasefire meeting collapsed when Iran declined to attend; donald-trump extended the ceasefire indefinitely while keeping the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports intact.
  • 33 ships have been redirected by the blockade; three sanctioned tankers seized (M/V Touska seized April 19 by Marines from USS Tripoli).
  • In retaliation, irgc-navy small craft seized two tankers in the strait-of-hormuz on April 22 (Liberian-flagged Epaminondas, Panama-flagged MSC Francesca).
  • Iran has placed naval mines in the Strait; U.S. Avenger-class minehunters transiting from Japan via Sri Lanka.
  • mojtaba-khamenei is the new Iranian supreme leader, in hiding and reportedly gravely injured; IRGC commanders effectively running operational and diplomatic decisions; abbas-araghchi named as prospective FM-level negotiator.
  • csis munitions-expenditure estimates: ~850/3,100 Tomahawks, 1,000/4,400 JASSMs, 290/360 THAAD, up to 1,430/2,330 Patriots.
  • UAE absorbed 2,819 Iranian missile/drone attacks Feb 28–Apr 14 (most of any nation; Israel: 1,357).
  • Retired BG donald-bolduc critique: tactical wins, strategic gaps, no exit strategy.

First U.S. combat use of LUCAS (March 2026)

Per Pentagon CTO statements reported in src-shield-ai-lucas-drone-swarm-2026-05, centcom used the LUCAS one-way attack drone in combat for the first time during Operation Epic Fury — the first operational deployment of the Iranian-clone OWA UAS the U.S. military has built. Pairing announced in May 2026: shield-ai’s hivemind swarm-autonomy software was selected to act as LUCAS’s “AI pilot,” with a fall 2026 capability demonstration planned.

FY27 Posture Reference (April 2026)

In Hegseth’s April 29, 2026 FY27 department-of-war posture testimony to the house-armed-services-committee, Operation Epic Fury is acknowledged as ongoing — cited alongside Operations Rough Rider, Midnight Hammer, and Absolute Resolve as proof of “second-to-none operational flexibility” (src-hegseth-fy27-posture-testimony-2026-04).

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