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U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

cnbc.com

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Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#181

Post by iamnothere »

mattlondon wrote: post #43

North Korea has a bunch they're willing to sell. Russia is buying already so get 'em while they're hot. I have been vaguely watching the Ukraine conflict over the past few years. From my distant and zero experience observations, it seems like missiles are extremely effective BUT also extremely limited. So you blow up that one building or SAM you targeted. Well done. What about the other 10,000 static targets? What ab…

It depends on the specific nature of the conflict. Not every conflict is about control over land; Iran is a perfect example. Their missiles provide a credible threat against globally critical infrastructure, which gives them a way to retaliate without committing ground troops. And their drone strikes are using heavier one-way drones, not FPVs, which wouldn’t make a dent in oil infrastructure or tanker ships.

The current US force configuration was designed to fight quick wars against opponents who mostly can’t fight back. It’s a military built to play “global police,” and for a short while this was probably the correct configuration.

Building a military that stands ready to fight any kind of war is probably impossible—it would be too expensive. You need to look at the biggest threats and optimize for those conflicts. The problem that the US now faces is that rival nations have optimized for defense against its particular style of maneuver warfare with heavy air bombardment. Air defense (not missile defense) is better and cheaper than ever.

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#182

Post by rbanffy »

inglor_cz wrote: post #143
Razengan wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing how a handful of people can cause the deaths and suffering of millions.. throughout history. What the fuck is wrong with the human species and its tendency for self-destructive leader-worship??

The point is that before the era of modern weapons, many wars were a net positive for the winners. Much of our genome is inherited from successful conquerors, many of whom are long forgotten. Starting wars has only been unequivocally negative for maybe the last 100 years. Not enough for an evolutionary change to manifest itself.

The US made about $68 billion just by kidnapping Venezuela’s president (and making sure the successor would be next if she didn’t allow the sacking). For something that required intelligence work and two choppers, the margin was great.

The fallout will come later, of course.

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#183

Post by matheusmoreira »

JeremyNT wrote: post #172
matheusmoreira wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA has never been defeated . It's never been taken over by force and forced to submit to a foreign power. War getting a little too expensive or politically unpopular for their tastes is not really a loss, and it implies nothing about their true capabilities. It's their relentless deindustrialization that will eventually do them in. The USA's industrial output back in WWII was staggering, its enemies had little h…

> The USA has never been defeated. It's never been taken over by force and forced to submit to a foreign power. War getting a little too expensive or politically unpopular for their tastes is not really a loss, and it implies nothing about their true capabilities. It feels like semantics here. The US empire hasn't been defeated but its specific invasions have been. But just knowing the US military is too weak to acco…

> The US empire hasn't been defeated but its specific invasions have been.

> a pyrrhic victory for whoever the US is attacking

That's what I'm trying to say.

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#184

Post by firesteelrain »

justin66 wrote: post #145
firesteelrain wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been 60-70 F15 and F16s operating in Iran (could be more just found via public sources).

And when an F-15E was shot down they got spooked. They're relying heavily on missiles because it doesn't cause a multiday story in the news when one is shot down on its way to the target (and because they're incapable of thinking more than one move ahead, and because it's not their money...).

[dead]

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#185

Post by flowerthoughts »

Razengan wrote: post #66
locknitpicker wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump's Iran war is known as "operation Epstein fury" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_2026_Iran_war

It's amazing how a handful of people can cause the deaths and suffering of millions.. throughout history. What the fuck is wrong with the human species and its tendency for self-destructive leader-worship??

Although, you don't know how many species before us caused their own suffering and destruction. Perhaps it's normal and expected. There's a slight chance we'll leave documentation to whatever species comes after us, but they'll probably ignore it, because they know best and it's different that time.

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#186

Post by ethbr1 »

nwatson wrote: post #95
simonh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The health care issue in the USA isn't due to lack of funding, the US spends more on health care per person than any other country, double that of many European countries with single payer systems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_hea... The costs of medicare, medicaid and CHIP to tax payers are about what most Europeans pay in tax for universal health care, but then they also need to pay for…

Health insurance company margins are 3% to 5%. The book America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Back-Room Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System (2015) by journalist Steven Brill blames mostly wasteful practices in hospitals, pharma and device manufacturers, government and corporate health administration costs.

Not to dismiss your point, but the US healthcare system has one meta problem.

Complexity.

There are too many parties. There are too many bespoke party-party contract. There are too many new middle-parties being created, with their own contracts. There are too many systems. There's too much tech debt.

That's a reason improvements to the US healthcare system have generally been via HHS/CMS imposing standardization mandates ('or no Medicare payments').

But providers, facilities, and insurers (most operating on low margins) can't be collectively more meta-efficient without simplifying the system.

Single payer / Medicare for all is a critical start not because of coverage, but because of simplicity.

There are so many intractable problems with the current system simply by virtue that changing anything about them requires 100s of parties to update 10,000s of party-party contracts and interfaces.

That's the biggest source of waste in the current system: constant duplicative re-engineering.

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#187

Post by rbanffy »

pjc50 wrote: post #45
PowerElectronix wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctrine never intended for these bombs to be used almost exclusively as means to wage wars. These are meant for strikes that need to be precise and carried in a short notice. If you have 10 targets and use atacms in all 10, there's something wrong in the decision making process or the strategy.

The fault in the decision process was starting this war in the first place. Everything follows from that.

We all know Operation Epstein Fury has been an extremely successful employment of weapons of mass distraction.

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#188

Post by rbanffy »

wookmaster wrote: post #167
PowerElectronix wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctrine never intended for these bombs to be used almost exclusively as means to wage wars. These are meant for strikes that need to be precise and carried in a short notice. If you have 10 targets and use atacms in all 10, there's something wrong in the decision making process or the strategy.

We all know there's something very wrong with this administration and their decision making.

All things considered, it appears it's working as intended by the administration.

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#189

Post by rbanffy »

martinky24 wrote: post #10
Squarex wrote: post #5

That's hard to believe. US with it's military spending should be able to join two large scale conflicts at the same time, not to have problem with a one minor conflict.

It’s easier to believe when missiles are the only strategy being used in the war…

The word you are looking for is "stragedy"

Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war

#190

Post by rbanffy »

bluegatty wrote: post #91
firesteelrain wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US doesn't even have reliable ways of getting goods and materials into the theatre and has limited quantities of everything. This is not true. US is known for the best logistics in the world.

US has 600 air refuelling aircraft and 40 naval supply ships. US power is mostly strategic, it's 'Air Based' which gives the kind of instant leverage leaders like. It's 'Aircraft Carrier Based'. The US doesn't have that same overwhelming ability otherwise. You can't quite an Army overseas - it takes a different kind of logistics esp. in Pacific, one the US doesn't quite have the level of sophistication. Don't get me…

I believe GP was being sarcastic.
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