Come now, success is guaranteed - after all they have got a really sexy, punchy, operation name "Epic Fury" and a really cool new three letter acronym "ACE"... All you have to do is land your giant transport aircraft on a dirt airstrip in artillery range of the Iranian mainland, in an environment swarming with drones. What could go wrong? NB: perhaps read the accounts of the battles at Dien Bien Phu and Khe Sanh? "No plan survives contact with the enemy" - perhaps, particularly, when the enemy have been preparing for as long as the Iranians have. The exact co-ordinates of just about every part of that island, not just the landing strip(s), will be with every Iranian rocket launcher, artillery battery and drone launcher. Sure, the USAF will launch " the mother of all suppressing operations, but a few will get through. You can have Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine working up ideas, as many staff studies as you want coming up with neat acronyms, but you are still asking large aircraft (jolly impressive aircraft but large and vulnerable) to fly in under heavy fire. I hope I am wrong, but I think it will fail.
