July 15, 2026: During the recent Iran War, the American and Israeli forces that attacked Iran had friends and allies inside Iran. These were the decades-old and loosely associated group of Iranians who worked for Israel as part of a long-range effort to destroy the current religious dictatorship and replace it with a democracy or even the Pahlavi monarchy the Islamic Ayatollahs displaced.

During the recent attacks on Iranian air defense and other military targets, the Israeli operative network had reported the current locations of key leadership targets plus the location of scientists and managers of Iranian weapons programs. The recent attacks included drones smuggled into Iran for Israeli operatives to use against moving or difficult-to-reach targets Israeli warplanes could not hit.

Another innovation was the use of AI-enhanced software to analyze all the targeting information gathered by satellite, aerial, and on-the-ground reconnaissance and surveillance. In the past, this was a time-consuming process, but the Israeli AI system automatically received all targeting information and combined that with similar older information. The result was a list of targets to be hit as well as who or what should be assigned to destroy the target. This included the drones operated by Israeli operatives inside Iran. Israeli and American warplanes took care of most of the targets, but Mossad, the Israeli CIA, had its own evolving list that was taken care of by whoever or whatever was available.

One thing Mossad and its operatives inside Iran had discovered before the war began was that Iranian air defense systems were in bad shape and not fully recovered from the June 2025 American Israeli airstrikes. China had quickly sent replacement systems, but the poor performance of the Chinese air defense equipment against Israeli aircraft countermeasures meant Iranian airspace was relatively safe. The only exception was helicopters or jets flying low enough for shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to bring down targets. During the Iran war, the Americans lost 17 aircraft, eight shot down and seven destroyed on the ground. In at least one case, shoulder-fired missiles were used.