In strategic circles, this was a common thought in the 12 day war: Iran was essentially mapping and testing defenses.

As evidence of this, the US was forced to hastily move THAAD ground station radar from South Korea because Iran destroyed a bunch of them in the Gulf [1][2]. Bear in mind there aren't many of these and they cost half a billion dollars each.

Further evidence of this is how quickly it happened. Iran most likely had detailed contingencies and battle plans for this kind of event.

As an aside, this is what militaries do. They plan for things. So whenever you see some conspiracy about how government X reacted to situation Y quickly and thus had foreknowledge, you can ignore it. Military planners are paid to make up fictional situations and figure out how to respond. That's what they do.

Weapons are the ultimate export. You use them and blow them up and the customer has to come back and buy more.

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/redeployment-u...

[2]: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/middleeast/radar-bases-us-mis...

> Iran destroyed a bunch of them

If by "a bunch" you mean one.