Yes.

The exquisite munitions are for kicking the door in, cleaning up enemy IADS, and getting after high value, mobile targets whose location will likely become harder to pin down after hostilities commence.

Once air superiority (air supremacy in this case) is achieved, then the ATO basically starts to function like an airline operations schedule, with reusable planes and drones servicing predefined targets with cheap iron bombs (typically with cheap guidance kits), returning to refuel, re-arm, line mx, maybe change crews, and go again. That's sustainable for a *very* long time.

We have vast stockpiles of iron bombs and various bolt-on guidance kits, all very affordable as such things go. We even still have the ability to deploy unguided iron bombs the old fashioned way (I'll let current fighter attack guys weigh in on the current level of proficiency).

We really no longer need the expensive munitions for this conflict, except maybe for an occasional niche application.

The legit concern is that we expended a lot of the high-end stuff, which reduces deterrence in the Pacific until inventories are restored (which will take time due to limited production capacity, even if funded). But the flip side is that we demonstrated to PRC that our chit still works really well, that in and of itself has a deterrent effect. Also demonstrated that the current regime at least isn't afraid of engaging, additional deterrent effect.

 

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-...3d2f?st=M2QVXC

Things about to get spicy on the West Coast

 

From the article...."...And it doesn’t help that two of the state’s major refineries closed in the past six months, cutting off almost one-fifth of its fuel-making capacity. Even if the strait reopens soon, its closure has already withheld at least 1 billion barrels from the global market, analysts say. ...

and...

"We are doing everything we can to meet our supply obligations there,” Wirth said. “But it does point out the vulnerabilities that have been created in California as a result of decades of poor energy policy.”

 

Approved as requested

 

Your points are valid, but so are the OP’s. Lack of foresight is not a trait either party has a monopoly on. We need much better governance from all sides.

 

Sort of like when they didn’t want the pollution caused by generating electricity. Just wanted someone else to do it and just send them the electrons by wire. “Offshored” the actual production - farmed it out to some corporation…

Enron I think the name was…

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journ...3F531DD768D3F4

 

Dont forget WW1 brought in massive rearranging as well, some of it leading to WW2, and then the Balkan conflicts in the 90’s (basically WW2 continued).

Countries affected (or even created) directly:

• Austria
• Hungary
• Czechoslovakia
• Yugoslavia
• Poland
• Finland
• Estonia
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Turkey
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Syria
• Lebanon
• Israel
• Ireland

 

Did we though? Yes, we killed something like 95% of incoming drones/missiles. But the Iranians were still able to do significant damage to some very high end systems. They would’ve killed a lot more of our people as well, but thank god we had the foresight to evacuate them (kudos to the leadership that made that decision). I feel like an alternate lesson the Chinese or Norks might take away is that if you saturate our defenses with enough targets, you’ll eventually get through, kill the radars & the patriot batteries & therefore threaten our regional forces & make your main operation that much easier. Caveat: those concerns are based on open source information. I’m sure there’s plenty we’re not seeing…..but still…

 

ANY ECONOMICALLY FEASIBLE DEFENSE CAN BE SATURATED. The defender must defend a whole perimeter while the attacker need attack only a single point on that perimeter - and generally the point they deem least well defended.

Which is why you need deterrence in the form of your own offensive capability, which our NATO allies largely spent the last three and a half decades divesting themselves of.

 

A deal made after two 8 yr predecessors did not. It would NOT have led to a nuke already, that is pure falsehood. The billion in cash was already THEIR money. And you’re going to have to show evidence that cash was trailed to make EFP IEDs that maimed and killed our boys. And what boys? Iran didn’t kill any US soldier recently until after Feb 28. And the 6 that died in the same day was a midair collision, not Iranian military action that shot them down.

After Trump killed the deal in 2018, Iran said screw it now and went ahead with enriching to the degree they had NOT done before. And no more monitoring once that deal was killed in 2018. Killing that deal in 2018 without replacing with a new one - how is that good? You need to be able to criticize fairly. You don’t seem to.



Im not going to argue science with you. You are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts. You listened to MSNBC and Rachel Maddow? Actually, you didn’t. You saw clips of her on your favorite podcasters and right wing media like Fox. But let’s get down to it, no, a vaccine doesn’t stop you breathing in a virus. You can still catch the virus. The idea was that you wouldn’t get as sick as to end up requiring a hospital bed so we could have those open for the most vulnerable in society - the elder, the pre-existing conditions, etc. Amd the general idea of you wouldn’t get as sick, not be as symptomatic. Win-win. And by the way, operation warp speed to make it in the first place WAS from Trump. Just facts. And everyone at the time on Fox News was vaccinated, despite what they would say every night. Things to think about.


And it was a vaccine, a mRNA type that continues to be used today safely. In fact, you’ll probably see more variants of it for different things than just a coronavirus.




You and I won’t ever see face to face. To come back full circle, I can’t take any of you seriously about Iran. You people have a fantasy that Iran will make a dirty bomb go off in NYC or some large city, and kill what? 50,000-100k? You had 1,000,000 Americans die and your response was to get that face diaper away from me and keep that needle to yourself.


Noted. And summarily dismissed.