he 2026 Iran War has become the first major conflict in which artificial intelligence plays a central role in combat planning and target selection. On 11 March, Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, publicly confirmed that American forces are using a variety of advanced AI tools to prosecute Operation Epic Fury, marking a watershed moment in the relationship between machine intelligence and military aviation.
“Our warfighters are leveraging a variety of advanced AI tools. These systems help us sift through vast amounts of data in seconds so our leaders can cut through the noise and make smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react,” Cooper stated in a video message. He emphasised that humans retain final authority over strike decisions, but acknowledged that AI is compressing processes that previously took hours or days into seconds.
The scale of the task explains why AI has become indispensable. With more than 5,500 targets struck in Iran during the first ten days alone, the volume of intelligence data requiring analysis, from satellite imagery and drone surveillance footage to intercepted communications and archived records, far exceeds what human analysts can process in the timeframes demanded by modern air operations.
Reports indicate that US targeting planners are using AI powered platforms that integrate machine learning to analyse data, identify potential targets, provide precise coordinates and prioritise strikes based on assessed military significance. These systems reportedly proposed hundreds of targets during the campaign’s opening phase, enabling the rapid tempo that characterised the first 96 hours of operations.
The technology has delivered undeniable operational results. The speed at which US forces degraded Iran’s ballistic missile infrastructure, naval capabilities and air defence networks would have been difficult to achieve with traditional targeting processes. Cooper credited AI with helping the military achieve “lethal effects in entirely new ways,” while the US Space Force was also acknowledged for contributions described as “unseen by the world.”
However, the use of AI in targeting has generated profound controversy. A high profile targeting incident in southern Iran on 28 February, which is now the subject of a US military investigation, has raised urgent questions about the reliability of AI driven intelligence processing. Preliminary findings, as reported by The New York Times on 11 March, indicate that the strike was based on outdated intelligence data. The targeted site had been administratively separated from an adjacent military compound years earlier, but remained in databases as an active target.
This has triggered an intense debate over whether AI systems failed to identify the changed status of the site or whether the failure was entirely human in origin. Critics argue that the incident demonstrates AI is insufficiently mature for military targeting. Dr Peter Bentley, a computer scientist at University College London, has cautioned that the technology remains too new and untested for life and death decisions. Noah Sylvia, an AI specialist at the Royal United Services Institute, warned against prioritising speed over humanitarian considerations.
More than 120 Democratic members of Congress have written to the Pentagon requesting detailed information about how the military is limiting civilian casualties and what role AI plays in the targeting process.
For the aviation industry, the implications extend beyond the immediate conflict. AI driven targeting systems are reshaping how air campaigns are planned and executed, with consequences for military procurement, pilot training, unmanned aircraft development and the future doctrine of air power. The 2026 Iran War may be remembered as the moment artificial intelligence moved from the margins of military aviation to its operational centre.
