But, they're scary. I know this, because I read it on the internet and heard it from bloviating nitwits who sit at a desk and read "news" off of a prompter.

.
The Biden Administration Granted Iran Billions in New Sanctions Relief Just One Month Ago

Biden Tells Bibi: US Will Not Support A Counterattack Against Iran After Hundreds Of Drones, Missiles Sent

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...n-halt-attack-israel



Crucially, the Biden White House appears to be strongly signaling to the Netanyahu government that the attack is 'done' and that the United States will not back any follow-up counterattack operations against Iran:

US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US will not aid any Israeli counterattack on Iran, US media report, citing senior administration officials.

Axios and CNN report that message was passed during a phone call between the pair.

Axios reports that Biden told Netyanyahu the US will oppose any Israeli counterattack.

CNN reports that Biden said the US will not take part in any such counteraction.

Israel has called on a United Nations Security Council meeting to condemn the Iranian aggression, which is expected to take place late Sunday. The US administration appears to be lobbying for a status quo and for Israel to not mount a strong response.

More at link

If the Israelis aren’t going to shoot back, then they should certainly seize sufficient Iranian assets that they can sell to recoup what they were forced to spend in order to defend themselves. Sort of a “loser pays philosophy.”

Well, if nothing else we got some good real-world testing opportunities for the SM3 last night. It's nice to be able to show that the system works under combat conditions, especially because it might one day be called upon to stop worse things from hitting us.

Info coming out this morning from IDF is that Iran fired 120 ballistic missiles at Israel. This is a massive ballistic missile barrage likely unprecedented in scope since WWII V2 attacks on England. The toy kamikaze drones and cruise missiles were easily all shot down by IDF/USAF/British and others.

Of the 120 ballistic missiles launched 7 hit their target (all 7 targeted an IDF airbase in the south), the rest were intercepted or failed in flight. I have a number of questions and points as a result of this ballistic missile attack.

What was the interception mix of Arrow3/THAAD/Navy SM-3, kill percentages?

Were space based weapons used to intercept any of the missiles, we likely will never know?

What were the aim points for the 113 missiles that were shot down? Cities? Ben Giron Airport? Israel and US will know exact aim points and a response to this attack may take this in to account.

In months or perhaps a year or so any one of these missiles could be carrying a nuclear warhead

What impact will this incredible interception rate have on China’s play book calculus? How many DF21D/DF26 missiles will they need to fire at a US Navy Carrier battle group protected by a US Navy SM-3 missile screen to assure success?

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
Well, if nothing else we got some good real-world testing opportunities for the SM3 last night.
<snip>

“The RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) is a ship-based surface-to-air missile system used by the United States Navy to intercept short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles as a part of Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.[5] Although primarily designed as an anti-ballistic missile, the SM-3 has also been employed in an anti-satellite capacity against a satellite at the lower end of low Earth orbit.[6] The SM-3 is primarily used and tested by the United States Navy and also operated by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. …”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...1_Standard_Missile_3

quote:

Originally posted by mrw:
Info coming out this morning from IDF is that Iran fired 120 ballistic missiles at Israel. This is a massive ballistic missile barrage likely unprecedented in scope since WWII V2 attacks on England. The toy kamikaze drones and cruise missiles were easily all shot down by IDF/USAF/British and others.

Of the 120 ballistic missiles launched 7 hit their target (all 7 targeted an IDF airbase in the south), the rest were intercepted or failed in flight. I have a number of questions and points as a result of this ballistic missile attack.

What was the interception mix of Arrow3/THAAD/Navy SM-3, kill percentages?

Were space based weapons used to intercept any of the missiles, we likely will never know?

What were the aim points for the 113 missiles that were shot down? Cities? Ben Giron Airport? Israel and US will know exact aim points and a response to this attack may take this in to account.

In months or perhaps a year or so any one of these missiles could be carrying a nuclear warhead

What impact will this incredible interception rate have on China’s play book calculus? How many DF21D/DF26 missiles will they need to fire at a US Navy Carrier battle group protected by a US Navy SM-3 missile screen to assure success?

I'd love to know the answers to some of those questions...especially how many of the Iranian missiles just blew themselves up due to poor construction/maintenance, and how many we actually intercepted. I doubt they tell us, though...and they probably shouldn't.

The numbers are pretty encouraging on their own, though. While I agree with many here that the Iranian military is a joke, a barrage of 120 IRBMs is definitely something to take seriously, and the results of this particular incident are pretty encouraging that our defenses are effective and capable to dealing with the threat.

Regarding the above, I wonder if...when? those missiles do contain nukes, what are the consequences of intercepting them? I assume there will be radiation fall out or do they have to be charged in a certain manner for the nuclear element to do it's most damage?

I think it's safe to say we 'really' know exactly what type of Missiles were launched from Iran just yet, or if 'we' will ever know with any certainty. Lots of fog w/o facts obscuring any details at this point, but certainly NO shortage of wildly inaccurate speculation from the uninformed 'experts' in the media!

Yet another missed opportunity to annihilate the IGRC. Congrats Biden.

quote:

Originally posted by mrw:
Info coming out this morning from IDF is that Iran fired 120 ballistic missiles at Israel. This is a massive ballistic missile barrage likely unprecedented in scope since WWII V2 attacks on England. The toy kamikaze drones and cruise missiles were easily all shot down by IDF/USAF/British and others.

Of the 120 ballistic missiles launched 7 hit their target (all 7 targeted an IDF airbase in the south), the rest were intercepted or failed in flight. I have a number of questions and points as a result of this ballistic missile attack.

What was the interception mix of Arrow3/THAAD/Navy SM-3, kill percentages?

Were space based weapons used to intercept any of the missiles, we likely will never know?

Information is fragmentary at this point. From various sources:

- Israel says that most ballistic missiles were shot down by the long-range Arrow 2 and 3 system outside Israeli airspace. Some missiles were reported to have broken up during re-entry, though that may also have been the result of unobserved intercepts. There is sci-fi-looking footage of what appears to be some instances of exo-atmospheric intercepts, likely by the top-layer Arrow 3.



- The US Navy claims to have shot down at least three ballistic missiles from two AEGIS destroyers in the Eastern Mediterranean, and more than 70 drones by fighter aircraft. It's unclear if that includes some downed over the Syrian provinces of Sweida and Deraa near the Jordanian border by US forces "operating from undisclosed bases in the region".

- Most non-ballistic threats seem to have been taken out over Jordania by national, Israeli and allied assets. Several NATO nations still have aircraft based around there as part of the coalition against the Islamic State. British aircraft, likely operating from Cyprus, are said to have shot down "a number". Over here it's being reported that a German tanker aircraft refueled French fighters in Jordanian airspace as part of operations, though it's not clear if the latter got any kills.

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
Yet another missed opportunity to annihilate the IGRC. Congrats Biden.

But then how would they suck up to the muslim hordes they have allowed to take over Michigan and Minnesota?

The left can always be guaranteed to do what keeps them in power vs. what is right and just.

The cartoon above illustrates this...

Two Countries, Four Wars

Consider Israel before Netanyahu — it was a semi-colony of the Democrat party. Israel was never a full-fledged colony of the United States, but Democrats always kept Israel on a short leash. Netanyahu began a shift to the right, decolonization of Israel, and disengagement from the Democrat party. As a result, Israel is currently facing the sort of “Color Revolution” that the American left excels at. Five left-induced elections in Israel in the last three years are a testament to that.

The American left is not willing to leave its quasi-colony without a fight. Since President Clinton, leftists have tried to delegitimize Israel’s conservatives and remove Netanyahu from office. After the October 7, 2024 Hamas attack, the Biden administration, after some hesitation, decisively sided with Hamas.


https://www.americanthinker.co...tries_four_wars.html

quote:

Originally posted by 6guns:
Regarding the above, I wonder if...when? those missiles do contain nukes, what are the consequences of intercepting them? I assume there will be radiation fall out or do they have to be charged in a certain manner for the nuclear element to do it's most damage?

Depending on factors such as speed and altitude when intercepted, the likely outcome will be from a complete warhead falling and impacting the ground where little contamination from the material, to broken up in flight and scattering of same over a larger area to the "burning up" on re-entry and even wider scattering of material.

All of those can and will be cleaned up, and the danger is pretty low compared to a "intended" detonation of the weapon.

The chance of "setting one off" by intercept is about like Oppenheimer's concern about "igniting the atmosphere" chain reaction.

Not zero, but close enough to make zero pregnant.

I wonder how many intercepting arms we have vs how many drones that Iran has.