To become a strategic actor, Iran must shed its reliance on proxies

In April 2024, as Iranian missiles rained down across Israel and many were intercepted mid-air, analysts around the world took note of the sheer scale of Iran's ballistic reach. Many seasoned military minds could easily note what didn't happen — there was no Iranian "air power" to speak of. Not a single Iranian fighter entered contested airspace, no attempt was made to suppress Israeli defences through air dominance, and not one sortie altered the course of events. The longstanding asymmetry in Iran's force structure — a missile-rich, air force-poor doctrine — was laid bare. This was, surprisingly, decades in the…