Seven days into the war between the United States-Israeli coalition and Iran, the conflict has transitioned from initial high-intensity exchanges to a phase defined by the former’s air and naval dominance and the latter’s asymmetric resilience.

The coalition, over the past twenty-four hours, maintained clear conventional superiority, including sustained strikes on Tehran, buried targets, and Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. Still, at the same time, Iran has adapted effectively. The Iranian ballistic missile volume has been reported by Centcom and other sources in the region to be down 80–90 per cent, yet verified penetrations with cluster munitions on Tel Aviv and confirmed strikes on Bahrain’s BAPCO refinery demonstrated Iran’s capability to impose meaningful political, economic, and psychological costs.

Iran’s multi-nodal command structure and underground “missile cities” appear to have helped sustain operations despite heavy losses. Tehran has clearly adjusted its approach and is now fighting a different kind of war, one in which endurance and cost imposition appear to be replacing large-scale missile exchanges as it relies on fewer but carefully selected attacks that are designed to penetrate defences and demonstrate that damage can be inflicted upon politically sensitive targets.

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