The Iran Strikes Beg the Question: What Is Airpower For?

Angry Planet

Matthew Gault

War, Politics, Conflict, Government, History, News

4.3 • 882 Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You can’t win a war with airpower alone, despite what the U.S. Air Force will tell you. For more than 100 years, the masters of the air have promised that military and political objectives can be achieved if you just let them drop enough bombs.

It’s a theory that’s been tested, and fallen short, many times. Operation Midnight Hammer, the Trump administration’s use of 14 GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Iranian nuclear sites, is just the latest test. The promise is that this has set back Iran’s nuclear program (it probably has) but Israel is hoping for much more—regime change in the Islamic Republic.

Time will tell, but I’m not betting on it.

On this episode of Angry Planet we zoom out and talk about the strategy behind airpower in the 21st century. Robert Farley, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Kentucky, is on the show today to give us his thoughts on the Iran strikes, airpower in general, and the lessons to be learned from watching the war in Ukraine.

Should we abolish the independent Air Force?
Was Israel’s war on Iran a success?
Has airpower ever forced regime change?
Curtis LeMay mentioned
Bombing doesn’t create revolutionary fervor
Airpower as theater
“Israel-splaining”
What’s a Golden Dome for anyway?
Are FPV drones part of the air force arsenal or infantry weapons?

Strikes on Iran Show the Force, and Limits, of Airpower

Robert on PBS in Kentucky

Buy Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force

The Five-Ring Circus: How Airpower Enthusiasts Forgot About Interdiction

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Love this podcast.
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0:12.6	Hello there, Angry Planet listeners, Matthew here.
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0:19.3	Go to Angry PlanetPod.com and sign up for $9 a month.
0:22.3	You get commercial free and early versions of the mainline episodes. There's a great one up right now
0:27.4	that is an interview with Dr. Pauline Shanks Corinne, who was a military professor at the U.S.
0:34.7	Naval War College. She resigned in protest. Find out what that is all about
0:40.3	over at angry planetpod.com. And now on with the show. Hello and welcome to another
0:50.1	conversation about conflict on an angry planet. I am Matthew Galt. We were finally getting
0:55.3	around to talking about Iran. I know we've been off for a little bit. It's been a bit of a hot
1:00.7	summer here between Jason and I. So, you know, I thought it would be interesting to kind of step
1:07.2	back for a minute and have a broader conversation about air power in general
1:12.2	and what these things might accomplish. And to do that, I have a very special guest with me today.
1:17.4	Sir, can you introduce yourself? Yeah, I am Robert Farley. I work at the University of Kentucky
1:22.6	in the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, where I teach national security and diplomacy
1:27.2	classes.
1:29.4	So just at the very beginning, because this is a take of yours that has haunted me for like 10 years.
1:36.6	Do you still think that we should abolish the independent Air Force?
	...

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