Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of these things is not like the other. Russia is a threat to Europe, and is in the midst of invading a country with a lot of agricultural, industrial, and cultural upside that should be on the road to EU integration. Bombing the snot out of Russian trenches in eastern Ukraine might even be a good idea. And the reasons for bombing Iran are...?
Perhaps letting Iran, a country ruled by fanatics, build enough military infrastructure to the point that they're able to hold a significant part of the world's energy hostage was the original blunder? You could argue they'd never use their power unless attacked, but I don't think you can be certain of that. It comes down to if you can accept that a non-rational actor can be allowed to have this power (or nuclear wea…
U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
711–720 of 774 posts
Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#712Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two birds with one stone for benefit of Putin. Likely son of Ayatollah wanted to get rid of his weak father and Putin wanted the US to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine. So Putin asked Krasnov to get rid of Ayatollah and empty the stockpile of weapons. Trump always delivers for Russia.
That is absurd. This war is being waged for the benefit of Israel. Even the pussyfooting of the on and off strikes is to force the Arabs to sign on the so called Abraham Accords. Once this misadventure is over, Israel goes to be the dominant power in the area, controlling the energy resources, with Arabs on the leash, US out of the area, and all potential regional rivals destroyed or neutered. note they are now shift…
Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#713Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#714Earlier 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…
Another way of phrasing the headline is "US initiates war of aggression against country, keeps pointlessly bombing its civilians to the point where it's run out of munitions". Complaining about empty weapons stockpiles completely misses the real damage that's been caused.
Hopefully, the same can be said to Russia war of aggression and both conflicts stop killing civilians and destroying their infrastructure.
But I do not see, that either conflict stops because an aggressor runs out of ammunition.
Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#715Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two birds with one stone for benefit of Putin. Likely son of Ayatollah wanted to get rid of his weak father and Putin wanted the US to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine. So Putin asked Krasnov to get rid of Ayatollah and empty the stockpile of weapons. Trump always delivers for Russia.
I don’t know if I am convinced. Russia also uses a lot of Iranian drones, which presumably are going to have supply troubles because of this war.
Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#716Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
> They didn't have more combat experience than Ukraine though Uh yes they did > 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. In other words, there are other relevant variables than just combat experience...? > You're jus…
Not really
> In other words, there are other relevant variables than just combat experience...?
Yes? Nobody argued otherwise.
> "We're actively learning lessons in Ukraine" → Yet somehow our Patriot batteries were taken offline by Shaheds lmao.
Learning a lesson second-hand is different than learning a lesson first-hand. The fact that Iran was able to perhaps attack some equipment or position shows us where we are weak and gives us, albeit unfortunate, an opportunity to learn a lesson and improve.
> But so are our enemies. And what cost to each party? Iran learns lessons "for free" while it defends itself.
No Iran doesn't learn lessons for free unless everyone else is too. Of course enemies are going to learn and adapt too, but we're smarter, stronger, our civilization is a lot better at war, have more money, and better equipment and so when we learn lessons they're more effective and important.
> China learns lessons for free because it's uninvolved. The US learns lessons because it's risking lives and equipment for a war with, so far, deeply negative strategic value.
Again you're just confusing your mistaken view of the Iran war here as I mentioned in my OP.
Happy to answer any questions you have though
Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#717Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
US Marine talking about Ukraine: “I just think that foreign fighters came here and got a war… a type of warfare that they didn’t expect,” he said. “Especially American foreign fighters. It’s not Afghanistan. It’s not Iraq. You’re taking the side of Vietnam versus the U.S. over here. You are the underdog, and with no air superiority or anything. And so they just assume they were being used as cannon fodder. But that’s…
> The claim above is that neither side has experience that's all that relevant to the type of conflict we'd expect in a China/US conflict.
This is a factually incorrect statement. I'm not sure why you're confused about what you are agreeing or disagreeing with at this point.
Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#718Earlier quoted context omitted.
You think the US has shown itself as to be extremely competent in the Iran war? If you were talking about Iraq, that was completely different leadership.
The US killed almost the entire Iranian regime leadership with minimal cost. What definition of competence are you going by?
Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#719Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many defense contracts are cost plus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost-plus_pricing
Nope. Very few defense contacts are still issued on a cost-plus basis. Especially not those for serial production of existing munitions.
Contracts are announced daily during the week. https://www.war.gov/news/contracts/
I provided the Wikipedia link to explain this contract structure because most people working outside defense have never heard of it. I didn't hear of it myself until talking to someone awarding defense research contracts, where these kinds of contracts are the norm. The Tomahawk missile contracts are not cost-plus, as you have said.
Re: U.S. used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war
#720Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do, but the current leadership does not have any appetite for entering Iran's airspace after the last downing drama. If Iran captures a pilot, there is going to be no more room for market manipulation.
Where and who is the pilot who crashed btw?