Direct proof of use
Iran used one-way attack UAVs during the June 2025 Israel-Iran war as part of a long-range retaliation campaign against Israel. CSIS assessed that Iran fired an estimated 550 ballistic missiles and more than 1,000 one-way attack drones during the 12-day war, averaging about 83 drones per day.
JINSA separately described the conflict as a long-range missile-and-drone fire exchange between Israel and Iran from June 13 to June 24, 2025, and reported that air-defense partners helped defeat 1,084 drones launched by Iran. Taken together, the sources directly support Iranian use of mass drone salvos in the conflict while leaving individual drone model attribution outside the public record used here.
Sources: CSIS How Would Iran Respond, JINSA Middle East Air Defense
Timeline
Israel opened Operation Rising Lion on June 13, 2025, striking Iranian nuclear, missile, air-defense, and command targets. ACLED records the fighting as a 12-day war in which Israel carried out nearly 360 attacks across 27 Iranian provinces and Iran responded with missile and drone fire against Israel.
During the same June 13-24 period, the Iranian drone campaign was absorbed by Israeli, U.S., and partner air defenses. JINSA reported that limited assistance from Arab and European partners supported U.S. and Israeli efforts against Iran's 1,084 drones, while CSIS later used the war's average daily drone-launch rate as a planning benchmark for possible renewed Iranian retaliation.
Sources: ACLED Twelve Days Q&A, JINSA Middle East Air Defense, CSIS How Would Iran Respond
Operational role
The one-way attack UAVs appear in the sources as an Iranian long-range strike and air-defense saturation tool rather than as individually identified airframes. They were paired with ballistic missiles in a campaign intended to pressure Israel from Iranian territory across a roughly 2,000-kilometer fight without a shared border.
Open-source analysis emphasizes that Israel's offensive campaign against Iranian launchers, air defenses, and command sites reduced Iran's ability to sustain later barrages. FPRI describes Israeli air superiority over Iran through the ceasefire, and JINSA argues that offensive operations against Iranian missile launchers and command sites disrupted the volume and intensity of follow-on salvos.
Sources: JINSA Middle East Air Defense, FPRI Shallow Ramparts
