Direct proof of use
Israel Aerospace Industries identified Heron-family MALE unmanned aircraft, including the Israeli Air Force Shoval configuration of the Heron, as part of Israel's Operation Rising Lion air campaign against Iran. IAI said the Herons flew strategic missions more than 1,500 km from home base and maintained a continuous combat presence over Iran during the 12-day campaign.
IAI's earlier operation summary also named Heron (Shoval) and Heron TP (Eitan) remotely crewed aircraft operating continuously in the long-range 'third circle' during Operation Rising Lion. The two IAI accounts directly support Israeli use of the Heron/Shoval in the 2025 Israel-Iran Conflict, while the public record does not provide a sortie-by-sortie Heron 1 track or individual payload list.
Sources: IAI Heron Standards, IAI Rising Lion Systems
Timeline
Israel launched Operation Rising Lion on June 13, 2025 as a 12-day campaign against Iranian nuclear infrastructure, missile production facilities, military headquarters, air-defense systems, and senior commanders. Public official and analytical sources place UAVs within the same campaign as intelligence, strike-support, launcher-hunting, and battle-damage-assessment assets.
On July 7, 2025, IAI named Heron/Shoval in its post-operation systems summary. On November 18, 2025, IAI published a fuller Heron-family account that described Heron operations over Iran, including long-range surveillance, target identification, rapid kill-chain closure, and battle-damage assessment.
Sources: IDF Rising Lion Background, Israel MOD Systems Evaluation, IAI Rising Lion Systems, IAI Heron Standards
Operational role
The documented Heron/Shoval role was centered on persistent long-range intelligence and targeting support. IAI said Herons carried out surveillance, target identification, rapid kill-chain closure, and battle-damage-assessment missions, using satellite communications and synchronized payloads to operate at very long range. It also described mission sets that included terrain dominance, hunting ballistic missiles and surface-to-air missiles, radar and wide-area surveillance, target tracking, and intelligence sharing.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense described the wider UAV array as logging thousands of flight hours in long-distance deployment, conducting missile-launcher hunts, and executing strikes and interdictions inside Iran. FPRI's open-source account similarly described Israeli UAVs operating around the clock, providing intelligence, assisting strikes, and supporting the broader counter-launcher campaign. Those campaign-level accounts support the operational setting for Heron/Shoval, but the source that names the Heron/Shoval directly is IAI's Heron-family reporting.
Sources: IAI Heron Standards, Israel MOD Systems Evaluation, FPRI Rising Lion Air Offensive
Campaign context
Operation Rising Lion paired crewed aircraft, unmanned aircraft, intelligence assets, space systems, air-defense forces, and electronic and digital capabilities in a long-range campaign over Iran. The IDF says the campaign targeted nuclear, missile, air-defense, headquarters, and senior-command targets, while FPRI describes a broad air offensive that included strikes on surface-to-surface missile launchers, storage sites, ground-based air defenses, and production infrastructure.
The public Heron/Shoval evidence is strongest for Israeli operation, endurance, ISR, target identification, kill-chain support, and battle-damage assessment. It does not independently identify individual Heron/Shoval strike locations, named crews, tail numbers, payload fits, or a complete loss list; IAI states only at family level that not all Heron aircraft returned while the missions were accomplished.
Sources: IDF Rising Lion Background, FPRI Rising Lion Air Offensive, IAI Heron Standards
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