Targeting Defence-Industrial Ecosystem: The War in West Asia and Lessons for India |
In the ongoing war, the Iranian defence infrastructure has been a key target for the US and Israel to ensure that Iran’s ability to threaten the US and Israeli interests militarily is diminished to the extent possible by the end of the war. India’s defence industries are no doubt being studied and war-gamed as targets by India’s adversaries. Multiple steps may be required to safeguard India’s defence industrial ecosystem, including, for instance, incorporating Mission Sudarshan Chakra into the design architecture from the project’s inception.
On 28 February 2026 at 9:45 am, Tehran time, the US and Israel launched a major joint strike with more than 100 aircraft[i] from land and sea, forming a “single synchronised wave”. In the first 57 hours of the operations, the combined US and Israeli forces hit Iranian senior political and military leadership, command-and-control systems, naval assets, ballistic missile facilities and intelligence infrastructure.[ii] The combined operations commenced with ‘U.S. CYBERCOM [U.S. Cyber Command] and USSPACECOM [U.S. Space Command], layering non-kinetic effects, disrupting and degrading and blinding Iran’s ability to see, communicate, and respond’.[iii] The combined daylight strike had followed a trigger event conducted by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), enabled by the US intelligence.[iv]
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) reported on 6 March that the forces had struck over 3,000 targets in Iran since the campaign began on 28 February, and that the IDF alone had struck 300 targets in the preceding 48 hours.[v] In the bargain, the forces had extended air dominance into central Iran and degraded the Iranian navy. Despite the ferocity of the operations, there is uncertainty about the US political and military objectives of the war, which have been variously described, including as “shifting and at times contradictory positions articulated”.[vi] Despite the uncertainty surrounding the objectives of the operations, one thing stands out with distinct clarity: the targeting of the Iranian defence industry to ensure that Iran’s ability to threaten the US and Israeli interests militarily is diminished to the extent possible by the end of the war.
This issue brief aims to deliberate on the destruction being caused to the Iranian defence industrial infrastructure, the way targeting fits into the larger political and military objectives of the war, and to draw lessons for India.
Political and Military Objectives of the War
Without going into publicly available intelligence regarding Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities or the debates and controversies surrounding the subject, an attempt is being made hereunder to list the objectives of the war as extracted from the media reports from press briefs and statements made by the government representatives of the US and Israel.
Political Objectives of War
President Donald Trump has framed this war “as the culmination of a 47-year adversarial relationship between the U.S. and Iran, dating back to 1979, arguing that the Islamic Republic has consistently undermined U.S. interests and destabilised the region”.[vii] His reported justification of strikes includes Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme and intercontinental ballistic missile capacity being generated from its ongoing space programme.[viii] In the press briefing of the Pentagon of 2 March, the core objectives of Operation Epic Fury were centred on degrading Iranian military capabilities, particularly related to the missile arsenal, and Iran’s ability, by extension, to project power outside of its borders.[ix] Among the other capabilities that enable Iran to project power outside of its borders is a network of non-state actors and militia forces that Iran has created and sustained over the years, including Hamas and Hezbollah. The military capabilities of Hamas and Hezbollah, even though greatly diminished by Israel in the recent Gaza war, can be revived.
Regime change in Iran is another political objective which President Trump and other officials of the US administration have publicly articulated. Trump has urged Iranians “to seize the opportunity and take over their government”.[x] President Trump has also linked the issue of nuclear non-proliferation with regime change. In his comments following the initiation of strikes on 28 February, he made it clear that a key objective of the strikes is counter-proliferation through regime change.[xi]
Unlike the US, which views the ongoing war as a result of Iran’s adversarial actions over the last 47 years, Israel sees the war as an opportunity to reset West Asia following the events of 7 October 2023. Israel wants to defeat and destroy any military forces capable of challenging it, including Iran.[xii] Israel shares all the political objectives articulated by the US, but there are issues of divergence between the US and Israeli interests. The US has extensive political, diplomatic, and economic relationships with the countries in the region. If the war is protracted, it may begin to harm US interests in the region and affect the global economy. President Trump is also constrained by the fact that he may not like to deploy ‘boots on the ground’, aligning with his policy of shunning ‘forever wars’. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, may view this war as an opportunity to tide over his domestic political challenges.[xiii] It would be in his interest to prolong the war, thereby retaining the support of Israeli citizens who have reposed their faith in his wartime leadership.[xiv]
Military Objectives of War
Political objectives define the overarching goals of a war, while military objectives are specific, achievable tasks designed to support them. In his press brief of 2 March, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters that the US military’s objectives are to protect and defend the US, and together with the regional partners, “prevent Iran from acquiring the ability to project power outside of its borders and be ready for follow-on actions as appropriate”.[xv] Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell has listed the military objectives—destroy Iran’s nuclear missile capability, eliminate its navy, stop its terrorist proxies from destabilising the world, and stop the regime from deploying roadside bombs.[xvi] In support of the military objectives, the combined US and Israeli force has targeted “nuclear facilities, ballistic........