The joint U.S. and Israeli offensive on Iran has done more than escalate a volatile regional conflict. It has revealed how algorithm-based targeting and data-driven intelligence reform the mechanics of warfare. In the first 12 hours alone, U.S. and Israeli forces reportedly carried out nearly 900 strikes on Iranian targets, an operational tempo that would have taken days or even weeks in earlier conflicts.
Beyond the scale and lethality of the strikes, which included hundreds of missions using stealth bombers, cruise missiles, and suicide drones, what stands out most to military analysts and ethicists is the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in planning, analyzing, and potentially executing those operations.
