Retweeted from @manniefabian: The Israeli Air Force has dropped over 12,000 bombs in Iran since the start of the war, in over 8,500 separate strikes on Iranian regime targets, the military says.
A senior IAF official says that 'in 18 days, we flew as much as we would in a year.'
Of the 12,000 munitions, 3,600 alone were used in strikes in Tehran, according to the IDF.
IAF fighter jets have carried out 5,700 separate sorties, including over 540 to central and western Iran and 50 deeper east in the country.
Military officials say that the IAF is carrying out constant air operations over Iran to thwart ballistic missile fire on Israel, using new techniques that allow for longer operations without the need for refueling.
In this formation, dubbed 'metro sorties' by the IAF, drones and fighter jets loiter before carrying out strikes on ballistic missile launchers, Iranian soldiers, and other targets, based on 'real-time information.'
When a new target is identified, IAF aircraft can be quickly dispatched to strike it. This was the case for the killing of Iran's intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib, in Tehran yesterday, according to the IDF.
Officials say this effort relies on maintaining air superiority over Iran.
The military assesses that its strikes have destroyed around 85% of Iran's air defense and detection systems. More than 300 targets relating to Iran's air defenses, including missile launchers and radars, have been struck, the IDF says.
In terms of Iran's advanced air defense systems, the IAF assesses that it has destroyed 92% of them, with only a handful of such systems remaining, including some that are hidden and not in use.
The IDF says it has destroyed around 80% of Iran's older air defense systems, along with 80% of its radars.
Iran also has what the military describes as 'decentralized' air defense systems, where missile launchers are connected to various optical systems, such as rudimentary cameras with artificial intelligence tracking software, to target Israeli aircraft. Some 75% of these systems have been destroyed, and military officials acknowledge they are much harder to locate than the advanced systems.
Additionally, the IDF says it has destroyed or disabled around 60% of Iran's estimated 470 ballistic missile launchers. Some previous military estimates put this number at 70%.
Around 200 of the launchers were destroyed in strikes, while another 80 are not considered to be operational after the IAF struck tunnel entrances to subterranean facilities where they are stored, according to the military.
The IAF says it continues to hunt down the remaining roughly 200 launchers to reduce the missile fire on Israel.
The military also assesses that Iran still has hundreds of ballistic missiles that can reach Israel. It has so far launched over 350 at Israel, with the rate of fire slowing to 10-20 missiles a day in the past week, with just one or two missiles at a time.
