Explosions lighting up Middle Eastern skies are not just the result of traditional airstrikes. Behind the scenes, a web of American-made technology is driving Operation Epic Fury’s rapid-fire success against Iranian targets.
According to the New York Post, from orbiting satellites to ship-mounted laser weapons, U.S. forces are leaning heavily on advanced systems to disable missiles, drones, and launch sites before they can inflict damage.
One of the newest tools appears to be the High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance system, known as HELIOS.
Videos released by U.S. Central Command show a Navy destroyer equipped with what analysts identify as the laser platform.
The system features a steerable head capable of concentrating an “intense, tightly focused beam” of energy to destroy drones.
The Navy has not confirmed its operational use in Epic Fury, which began Feb. 28. However, it said earlier this year that HELIOS successfully downed four drones during testing.
In the opening 72 hours of combat, U.S. forces struck 1,700 targets. More than 200 Iranian ballistic missile launchers — roughly half of the country’s arsenal — have been destroyed, with dozens more rendered inoperable. Hundreds of missiles have been intercepted.
Much of that precision stems from the United States Space Force, established by President Donald Trump in 2019, during his first term. Satellites equipped with infrared sensors detect missile launches by tracking the heat signatures they generate.
“They can spot the missiles and pinpoint where the launchers are. The missiles can be intercepted and destroyed [often with Patriot Missiles]. Field forces get notified that an attack is coming, so they can go to shelters or bunkers,” Brent David Ziarnick, a former professor in the Space Force program at Johns Hopkins University and retired Air Force officer, told The Post.
Inside radar domes known as Radomes — massive spherical structures resembling golf balls — crews analyze real-time data, calculate missile trajectories, and determine likely impact zones.
“[The] system is built to ensure, if a missile is ever launched, the United States will be the first to know about it,” said Sam Eckhome, host of “Access Granted.” “Together, the three layers form one of the most advanced early warning networks in the world.”
Working alongside the Space Force is the United States Cyber Command.
According to Ziarnick, once radar sites are identified, cyber teams infiltrate and disable them.
“Cyber Command will try to make [Iran’s] radar not work. It will involve infiltrating the system and shutting it down … or taking it over. The software goes, and the computer turns into a brick,” he said.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine confirmed that before kinetic strikes began, cyber forces targeted Iranian “communications and sensor networks” to “disrupt, disorient and confuse the enemy.”
Former Space Force officer Bree Fram said the limited U.S. casualties reflect the reliance on advanced systems rather than ground troops.
“The fact that this isn’t a mass formation of troops with rifles on the ground speaks to the fact that this force is built with extreme technology and the brain power to operate it,” she said. “Those combine to make us the most capable force on Earth and keep Americans safe from harm as they do the most difficult, inherently risky things that we ask them to do.”
As Epic Fury continues, much of the fight appears to be waged not only in the air and at sea, but in space and cyberspace as well.
