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

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

#621

Post by goatlover » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

slashdev wrote: post #485

bettercallsalad wrote: post #434

Not an American but live here. But I don’t understand the fixation of US in middle east theatre. With the abundance of onshore oil through fracking revolution, presumably US doesn’t need to police the Middle East. The president himself said US doesn’t need their oil. So what is this conflict all about? Is there bigger geopolitical price tag attached to victory in Iran? Or US is just besieged by corruption to the exte…

Maybe I’m missing the subtler geopolitical point here, but I don’t think it’s about oil. It’s about preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons and threatening the region via their missiles, drones, and proxies. Whether they succeed at it or not is an open question, but it seems clear that’s what it was about. Take operation midnight hammer last July. That was clearly only about the nuclear issue.

Well Trump claimed Iran's nuclear threat was completely obliterated after Operation Midnight Hammer. Then when decapitating the Iranian regime in coordination with Israel failed to produce regime change this year, all of a sudden Iran was "two weeks away" from making a nuke.

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

#622

Post by _heimdall » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:01 PM UTC

input_sh wrote: post #267

WarmWash wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China, in it's modern incarnation, and every living member of it's military, has never seen a single real battle. Nothing. No one has any rank that has bearing on any kind of combat. Just decades of self-congratulatory war games. China has tons of weapons and resources. But it would remain to be seen if they can actually fight when every single person along the entire chain is a total day one rookie.

This isn't WW1, not a lot of experience is necessary to point a missile or a drone towards the target.

You may overestimate the skill demanded of soldiers in trench warfare. The mental and physical ability to stay in the fight is unimaginable. The skill expected with regards to attacking the enemy, well the goal was mostly to just not stick your head above the trench wall.

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

#623

Post by owebmaster » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:03 PM UTC

bitmasher9 wrote: post #447

freehorse wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> China, in it's modern incarnation, and every living member of it's military, has never seen a single real battle. I wish people would take a short stop here and contemplate a bit on this sentence.

All of this talk about entering a hot war with China is crazy because of this fact. You don’t go directly from literally zero battles to starting a war with one of the strongest armies.

How long it takes for an army to have zero experience to be heavily experienced? 1 year? 3 years? 5 years? Can their enemies win before that?

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

#624

Post by Sabinus » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:10 PM UTC

FuckButtons wrote: post #492

throw0101d wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That quite a bit less of an issue than the headline implies. Here's a point that I ran across: these long range missiles are there to take out air defences and such (along with stealth sorties), which allows you go go in with 'regular' ordinance and non-stealth aircraft—of which there is much higher quantities and availability—in later phases. In the early phases of the conflict you use stand-off munitions to reduc…

You’re giving trump a lot of credit that you think he’s capable of thinking of second order effects of his actions.

Well I was assured by his supporters that he was a smart and successful businessman and 'very stable genius' so I'm sure this won't end in economic disaster and national humiliation.

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

#625

Post by sarchertech » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:16 PM UTC

SR2Z wrote: post #357

sarchertech wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's why we entered WWII The US entered World War II in the pacific after Pearl Harbor and in Europe after Germany declared war. Before those 2 events, there was still a strong isolationist contingent in the US.

For years leading up to that point Congress was passing "neutral" bills that allowed the country to sell weapons to the Allies but not the Axis. Since we're discussing weapons production, yes, the US joined the war effort on the side of the Allies well before formally declaring war. Yes, there were isolationists, but there weren't enough to change the fact that fascist/communist victories in Europe would be bad for A…

That wasn’t the US supporting liberal democracies. A full 20% of Lend-Lease went to the Soviet Union, and the US provided plenty of support to Nationalist (and very authoritarian) China.

We had friendly relations and supported many counties that weren’t liberal democracies before the war. We were friendly with Japan before they started expanding and threatening free trade/access to Asia.

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

#626

Post by GetTheFacts » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:22 PM UTC

jimmydoe wrote: post #365

used? as if it's paper towel wipe up some dirt? this is so depressing. USA people, do you all really love killing other human? or you have no control of your democratically elected government at all?

USA people, do you all really love killing other human?

   And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna 
   kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and
   veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, kill, kill, kill." And 
   I started jumpin' up and down yelling, "Kill! Kill!" and he started jumpin' up 
   and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "Kill! Kill!" 
   And the Sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, 
   "You're our boy."[0]

Does that validate your fantasy about Americans?

>you have no control of your democratically elected government at all?

Yes. We do[1].

[0] https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/arloguthrie/alicesrestaurant...

[1] https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/full-text

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

#627

Post by jbxntuehineoh » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:23 PM UTC

SR2Z wrote: post #609

bijowo1676 wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>our ideology (liberal democracy) is protected across the world this is pure propaganda and is completely false statement, not grounded in reality. US has no problem protecting despotic autocracies like the Pinochet's junta in Chile or Saudi Arabian theocratic monarchy (a birthplace of islamic wahhabism). The actual goal of military is to protect the status of USD as a global reserve currency and ensure all important…

> this is pure propaganda and is completely false statement, not grounded in reality. US has no problem protecting despotic autocracies like the Pinochet's junta in Chile or Saudi Arabian theocratic monarchy (a birthplace of islamic wahhabism). No, it is not false. Geopolitics is about lesser evils and raw needs, not perfect ideological consistency. Any country stupid enough to care about that would not last very lon…

Yes you're completely correct, our goal is to protect liberal democracy (unless it happens that protecting liberal democracy is in conflict with our economic or security interests, at which point we immediately stop giving a fuck about it)

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

#628

Post by toyg » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:28 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #583

toyg wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This coming from the leader of the other country in a war... I mean, I do find it credible that Xi might have told Putin to think very hard before doing something extremely stupid, but from there to stating that Russia is "China's vassal" and will do whatever they're told by a party who has long been a direct competitor (China and Russia have been solid "frenemies" for a long time, pushing very different views of wha…

The Soviet Union's relationship with China was more of a peer rivalry situation. The Russian relationship with China is nowhere near parity. Russia would fold tomorrow if China withdrew their backing and went along with the US/EU sanctions. So Russia is only able to prosecute their war with China's permission. When your foreign policy is decided by another power, that's the textbook definition of a vassal.

It's not a binary choice between material support and sanctions, there are plenty of intermediate states. I think you are being hyperbolic again.

And I disagree that USSR and PRC were just "rival peers". Rival peers would be UK/US (at least until Suez), or UK/FR until the 90s. USSR and PRC actively fought each other and almost started a nuclear war; that's way beyond "peer rivalry", that's actual direct competition.

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

#629

Post by ericmay » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:28 PM UTC

estearum wrote: post #616

ericmay wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok so let me explain something to you as I think you might be a little new to the military or military theory, combat, &c. Militaries need to train in order to test systems, test weapons, gain experience, and be able to generally perform better and accomplish any given objective. In the modern era, militaries need to engage in what is called Combined Arms exercises. These exercises, as the name alludes to, coordinate…

Your ego and confidence would do wonders in the Russian military! After all, they had tons and tons of combined arms, counterinsurgency, and standoff experience. Way more combat experience than Ukraine did. Unfortunately it turns out different wars are very different. You’re acting like I’ve argued that I would prefer China over the US. That’s absolutely not true, and partially for the reasons you mention. However, w…

> After all, they had tons and tons of combined arms, counterinsurgency, and standoff experience. Way more combat experience than Ukraine did.

They didn't have more combat experience than Ukraine though, never mind the additional problems that the Russian military faced at the time of the invasion which are too numerous to list here but include corruption, lack of equipment, a lack of understanding of the will of the Ukrainian people, and more.

Fast forward to 2026 and I'd argue there are probably only 4-5 militaries in the world who have any meaningful combat experience: the United States, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, and Iran to a lesser extent and perhaps the United Kingdom though they're falling more and more behind in that respect.

> We especially shouldn’t presume that when Iran, as a China-lite adversary, is teaching us lessons that we apparently have been unwilling to learn indirectly in Ukraine.

You're just wrong. We're learning lessons in Ukraine, actively testing western and US-specific equipment, and more. We had real-time experience in deploying our capabilities in logistics and intelligence too. Today we're actively seeing how American combat systems perform in real combat operations against an enemy deploying combat systems developed by our adversaries in Iran and throughout the Middle East. You might not be learning anything, but don't presume your ignorance extends to the Pentagon.

> By the way, Mr Military Strategy Buff, “combined arms” is not (necessarily) multiple branches working together. It’s multiple functions working together. Aviation, armor, artillery, infantry, etc. Nothing to do with different branches.

The branches are just where those capabilities generally rest. For example the Air Force does not employ artillery or infantry, those are functions of the army. My point was demonstrated.

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

#630

Post by ericmay » Tue, Aug 04, 2026, 11:32 PM UTC

estearum wrote: post #620

ericmay wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is factually incorrect then if that's the claim. The US has that experience.

No active American servicemember has fought a near-peer adversary lmao You should do some reading from the people who fought in GWOT and are now volunteering in Ukraine. Obviously combat experience is better than no combat experience, but we absolutely should not assume much beyond that.

> No active American servicemember has fought a near-peer adversary lmao

You don't need to fight China to get experience fighting. The skills and experience translate. Plus America is getting direct experience with Chinese and Russian made systems.

Even the simple act of organizing and deploying the military is incredibly valuable as I've already explained to you in another post.