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U.S. Conducts Tomahawk Cruise Missile Strikes on Iranian Targets Under Operation Epic Fury.
On February 28, 2026, the U.S. Department of War designated Operation Epic Fury as U.S. and Israeli forces launched large-scale strikes on targets inside Iran using crewed aircraft and sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. The operation marks a significant escalation in direct military action against Iran, with potential consequences for U.S. regional posture, force protection, and global energy security.
Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, 2026, as U.S. and Israeli forces carried out coordinated strikes against targets inside Iran, according to early reporting by ABC News, The Washington Post, and Euronews citing U.S. officials. The U.S. Department of Defense formally designated the campaign, which reportedly involved both crewed aircraft and sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from U.S. Navy vessels operating in the region. As of this writing, officials have not publicly detailed the number of munitions used, their specific variants, or confirmed target sets. Meanwhile, a surge of open-source intelligence material circulating online appears to show coordinated waves of low-flying cruise missiles over Iraqi territory and debris consistent with a Tomahawk land-attack variant, though these visuals remain unverified and cannot independently confirm the scope of the operation.
For illustrative purposes only and not from Operation Epic Fury, a U.S. Navy Tomahawk missile launches from USS Cape St. George in the Mediterranean Sea during Operation Iraqi Freedom, March 23, 2003 (Picture Source: U.S. Navy / Raytheon)
Beyond mainstream coverage, a substantial volume of open-source intelligence (OSINT) material has circulated on social networks and dedicated conflict-monitoring channels. Multiple videos, apparently filmed over Iraqi territory, show low-flying cruise missiles transiting west-to-east in coordinated waves, with users counting more than twenty missiles in some sequences. Additional images shared by OSINT groups purport to show missile debris and at least one unexploded warhead on the ground in Iraq, described as consistent with a Tomahawk land-attack variant. While these visuals align with known cruise-missile flight profiles and physical characteristics, they remain unverified and may be subject to misidentification or manipulation, so they cannot be treated as conclusive evidence in isolation.
Footage and testimonies emerging from inside Iran suggest that several major urban areas, including sites near key infrastructure, were targeted during the opening phases of Operation Epic Fury. Residents report observing low-altitude missiles approaching fixed installations shortly before explosions, with some videos capturing missiles descending toward what are described locally as administrative or nuclear-related facilities. At this stage, independent verification of specific target sets is incomplete, and it remains unclear which impacts, if any, can be definitively attributed to Tomahawk missiles rather than to other precision-guided munitions employed during the same waves of strikes. In the absence of detailed official confirmation or comprehensive satellite-based damage assessments, analysts stress that any attempt to quantify the role of Tomahawks in individual strikes remains provisional.
From an operational standpoint, the reported use of Tomahawk missiles is consistent with the long-range, stand-off strike concept that underpins U.S. naval doctrine. Sea-launched land-attack cruise missiles can be fired from surface combatants or submarines operating in international waters, allowing planners to engage targets deep inside Iranian territory without exposing crewed aircraft to the densest layers of air defense. The apparent routing of missiles through Iraqi airspace, as seen in OSINT material, reflects typical mission planning for such weapons: low-altitude, terrain-following flight paths designed to limit radar detection and permit simultaneous or near-simultaneous impacts on multiple aimpoints, such as command nodes, radar sites or storage facilities.
Technically, the Tomahawk, designated BGM-109, is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered cruise missile in service since the early 1980s and used primarily by naval forces. Modern land-attack variants typically offer a range of roughly 900 nautical miles, or about 1,600 kilometers, depending on configuration, enough to strike central Iran from launch positions well outside its territorial waters. The missile uses a solid-fuel booster to leave its launch canister before transitioning to a small turbofan engine for the cruise phase, flying at approximately Mach 0.7–0.75 at altitudes as low as 30–50 meters above ground level. Its guidance suite combines inertial navigation, GPS updates, terrain contour matching (TERCOM) and Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation (DSMAC), allowing it to follow complex routes with high terminal accuracy, even in challenging electromagnetic conditions.
Current generations of the missile, particularly the Block IV “Tactical Tomahawk” and the modernized Block V series, incorporate additional capabilities tailored for dynamic operational environments. These include in-flight retargeting via secure data link, loitering over a designated area while awaiting updated tasking, and in some configurations the ability to transmit imagery back to command authorities shortly before impact to support battle-damage assessment. The Block IV/Block V Tomahawk typically carries a 1,000-lb class unitary warhead designed for use against high-value, hardened or semi-hardened land targets. Collectively, these features make the system suitable for the early phases of a campaign such as Operation Epic Fury, where degrading command, control and air-defense infrastructure is a priority before more extensive air operations.
Tomahawk missiles are launched from vertical launch systems installed on guided-missile destroyers and cruisers, as well as from attack submarines capable of firing them via dedicated vertical tubes or torpedo tubes. Over several decades, the United States has procured thousands of Tomahawks, enabling it to assemble large strike packages when required and to sustain operations over multiple days if necessary. The platform-agnostic nature of the missile, usable from surface ships or submarines, adds to its flexibility and complicates an adversary’s defensive calculations, as launch locations can be dispersed over wide maritime areas and adjusted rapidly in response to operational developments.
Despite the growing body of media reporting and OSINT material pointing to extensive cruise-missile activity during Operation Epic Fury, significant uncertainties remain regarding the exact employment of Tomahawks in this campaign. Publicly accessible U.S. government communications have not, so far, detailed how many Tomahawks were launched, which specific variants were used, or how the overall target list was apportioned between cruise missiles and other munitions. Comparisons circulating online between the current strikes and earlier operations such as the opening stages of the 1991 Gulf War therefore, rest on incomplete information and should be treated with caution. Until more verifiable data emerge, ,whether through official disclosures, authoritative investigations or high-resolution imagery analysis, any assessment of the precise scale and impact of Tomahawk use in Iran remains necessarily approximate.
In sum, early accounts from major U.S. media and extensive OSINT activity strongly suggest that sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles formed an important component of the initial strike waves under OPERATION EPIC FURY, providing long-range precision engagement of targets inside Iran while keeping launch platforms at stand-off distance. At the same time, the absence of an official, public munitions breakdown and the limitations inherent to social-media evidence mean that the exact scope of Tomahawk employment cannot yet be established with confidence. For now, Operation Epic Fury illustrates the continued centrality of naval cruise missiles in U.S. contingency planning and escalation management in the Middle East, while underlining the need for careful, source-critical analysis as further information on the campaign becomes available.