IDF preparing ‘new surprises’ for next Iran war, says senior IAF officer

Israeli Air Force officer says the next war with Iran will be “completely different.”

By World Israel News Staff

In an interview published Sunday by Israel Hayom, a senior Israeli Air Force officer said Israel is better prepared for another round of fighting with Iran and warned that any future war would not resemble the last one.

“The next war with Iran will look completely different,” said Lt. Col. R., the head of the air superiority branch in the Israeli Air Force. “We want to operate better, stronger. We are better prepared for future combat.”

The interview was published one year after the start of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, and followed a recent 17-hour exchange of strikes between Israel and Iran.

Lt. Col. R. said the latest round showed the air force’s ability to act quickly both defensively and offensively.

“The ability to go very quickly into action in Iran, within a few hours, is the result of deep preparation,” he said. “For us, the Iranian arena has become a first-circle arena.”

He added that the recent war ended with full freedom of action across Iran but acknowledged that situation has changed.

“That does not mean our freedom of action has been preserved since then,” he said. “The enemy has renewed itself and managed to create a certain air-defense capability. It has gone back to feeling somewhat protected.”

He said Israeli strikes earlier this week hit important Iranian air-defense systems, but added, “We could also have done more.”

The officer said Iran’s missile and air-defense capabilities have been reduced, but not eliminated.

“The Iranian enemy is very smart, but we left it with much less flexibility,” he said. “It wants to reorganize the deployment of its defense systems, but it no longer has hundreds. It has far fewer. It does not have the number of missiles it had before the past few months.”

Lt. Col. R. also served as a combat navigator and flew over Iran during the recent war. He described the operation as a major operational success but said Israel would seek to improve in any future campaign.

“Next time, if there is one, I want to do better, stronger,” he said. “Israel is in the west and Iran is in the east, and that will not change, but in the next war there will be different things, new surprises that we will bring to the battlefield.”