America's new war machines showcased in Iran war

In less than one week, the Iran war produced a string of combat firsts.

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Axios says those events pulled back the curtain on an American military boosted by AI and stocked with upgraded weapons during Operation Epic Fury.

The Trump administration has been happy to confirm — and flex — the results.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing that Washington is "punching" Tehran while it's down, "which is exactly how it should be."

Axios reports the U.S. military used, and may still be using, Anthropic's AI tools despite President Trump's insistence on blackballing the company.

The Pentagon has previously used AI to synthesize documents, streamline logistics, simulate situations and identify objects in drone feeds.

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U.S. troops for the first time used two weapons: Lockheed Martin's Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) and the Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System (LUCAS).

LUCAS, a $35,000 delta-wing drone based on Iran's Shahed (a design also coopted by Russia (Geran) and Houthi rebels (Waid)), and PrSM drew praise from Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper.

He said, "We took them back to America, made them better, and fired them right back at Iran."

He added, "I just could not be prouder of our men and women in uniform leveraging innovation to create dilemmas for the enemy."

Axios highlights F-35 and submarine actions.

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An Israeli Air Force F-35I took out an Iranian Air Force Yak-130, which the Israel Defense Forces described as the "first shootdown in history of a manned fighter aircraft by an F-35 'Adir'."

Royal Air Force F-35Bs downed drones over Jordan, backed by Typhoons and a Voyager tanker, according to the defense ministry.

A U.S. Navy submarine sank an Iranian warship with a single Mk 48 torpedo in the Indian Ocean.

Axios described the strike as the first American torpedo attack to sink an enemy ship since World War II.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine called it "an incredible demonstration of America's global reach," adding, "To hunt, find and kill an out-of-area deployer is something that only the United States can do at this type of scale."

Axios's "reality check" notes the Defense Department's public narrative indicates these new weapons are performing as advertised and that malfunctions are unlikely to surface anytime soon.

Axios also observed the department remains a slow-moving behemoth and that weapons and vehicles can take years to develop and run wildly over budget.