Direct proof of use
The Gulfstream G550 Nachshon Eitam is documented in the 2025 Israel-Iran Conflict through reporting on Israeli Air Force 122 Squadron during Operation Rising Lion. EDR Magazine reported that Nachshon Squadron's Eitam, Shavit, and Oron intelligence aircraft were used to collect strategic intelligence and provide advanced command and control during the operation.
The Jerusalem Post separately reported that the Nachshon Squadron led IAF attacks throughout Iran, opened the skies to fighter jets, and used its aircraft to provide real-time intelligence and operational support. Its account identifies the squadron's three aircraft configurations as Itam, Shavit, and Oron, and describes the unit as a reconnaissance squadron tasked with monitoring Iran, Gaza, and other regions.
Sources: EDR Operation Rising Lion, Jerusalem Post Nachshon Squadron
Timeline
Israel launched Operation Rising Lion on June 13, 2025. Official IDF background describes a 12-day campaign against Iranian nuclear infrastructure, missile production facilities, military headquarters, air-defense systems, and senior commanders, with fighter jets, intelligence units, aerial-defense forces, naval assets, and technological capabilities working together.
During the same campaign, the Nachshon Squadron's Eitam, Shavit, and Oron aircraft were reported in the airborne intelligence and command-and-control role. The Jerusalem Post account, published after the June 2025 fighting, adds that the squadron operated continuously day and night during the war and supported target-strike preparation across phases of combat.
Sources: IDF Rising Lion Background, EDR Operation Rising Lion, Jerusalem Post Nachshon Squadron
Operational role
The documented conflict role was not strike delivery. The Eitam appears in the sourced record as an airborne early warning, surveillance, and battle-management aircraft supporting Israeli air operations over and around Iran. EDR ties the aircraft to strategic intelligence collection and advanced command and control, while the Jerusalem Post describes the Nachshon Squadron as providing real-time intelligence, opening airspace forward, and supporting the IAF's preparation for target strikes.
IAI's background material identifies the Eitam as the Nachshon family's real-time aerial situational-awareness aircraft, while the newer Oron combines capabilities from earlier Shavit and Eitam missions. That background helps explain the Eitam's role in the public conflict record: it was part of Israel's airborne intelligence and control layer rather than a munition or attack aircraft.
Sources: EDR Operation Rising Lion, Jerusalem Post Nachshon Squadron, IAI Oron Background
Campaign context
The Eitam use fits a broader Israeli air campaign that depended on intelligence, battle management, and long-range air operations. FPRI's open-source account describes Operation Rising Lion as a complex Israeli air offensive in June 2025 that rapidly established air superiority over relevant parts of Iran while attacking nuclear, missile, air-defense, and command targets. Israel's Ministry of Defense later said Israeli-developed systems, digital capabilities, AI, and electronic warfare performed across the operation, and that covert and continuous intelligence gathering supported rapid target engagement.
The public sources do not provide a sortie-by-sortie Eitam track, exact orbit locations, crew list, or individual target assignments. The source-backed claim is therefore limited to Israeli use of Nachshon Squadron's Eitam during Operation Rising Lion for intelligence collection, surveillance, and command-and-control support.
Sources: FPRI Rising Lion Air Offensive, Israel MOD Systems Evaluation, EDR Operation Rising Lion, Jerusalem Post Nachshon Squadron
.jpg?width=1200)
