Flight Global: Report: US military needs to rethink its precision strike portfolio
The US military is overly invested in short-range direct attack bombs and not enough in long-range, stealthy smart weapons and aircraft, and this must change if it ever expects to challenge the air defences of nations like China, Russia, Iran or North Korea.
That’s the assessment of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, which released a new report this week on “sustaining America’s precision-strike advantage”.
The crux of the argument presented by authors Mark Gunzinger and Bryan Clark is that while shorter-range weapons like joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs) and small diameter bombs (SDBs) have kill rates as high as 100% when an aircraft can get close to its target, that won’t be possible in large force-on-force salvo against large military force that has its own guided, smart weapons.
Update: US Military Incapable of Overcoming Defenses of Russia, China and Iran -- Sputnik
WNU Editor: In brief .... what the report is saying (quoting Russian news media) is the following .... the US military has over-invested into weapons which work well for launching attacks on countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria but are quite ineffective for countries like Iran, Russia and China. What's my take .... I know that the U.S. does not have the conventional military weapons to take on Russia or China (and neither does China or Russia vs. the U.S.) .... but the inability to wage a conventional war against a country like Iran is a worrisome one .... since it is the military option that the White House likes to sometimes advertise it is capable of doing as the Iranian nuclear talks continue.
I've been saying since early 2008 that the US lacked the conventional military capability to challenge the air defenses of Iran. It's nice of Mr. Gunzinger and Mr. Clark to finally catch on to this even if they are over seven years late in arriving at this. Now hopefully the right people in the US government will also understand this. As for the Russian sources, they are simply stating the obvious.
ReplyDeleteI never really worried much about this as I patiently explained to friends in early 2008 that Israel would handle this problem along with perhaps a coalition of Sunni Arab states. While we lack the ability to do this, Israel has the ability to carry this out. In this event, as I explained, we would be a net liability to the operation and should we become aware of it our best option would be to GET OUT OF ISRAEL'S WAY!!
While Israel may still be able to carry this out, it would likely be considerably more difficult now. Had I have known then that Israeli action on this would not be forthcoming I would have suggested the following. 1.) Realize Iran will acquire nuclear weapons. 2.)The sanctions will be lifted at time and place of Iran's choosing. 3.)The only reason even the limited sanctions are allowed to continue is because they serve Iran's interest. 4.)All of this will happen even if America puts all of its military, economic, and political strength into trying to prevent it.
Once this is understood, we can plan accordingly. We still could plan for this now unfortunately we've lost over seven years!! With this reality it would seem that negotiations at this point are a complete waste of time, energy, and precious resources.
As for the so called "military option." I really don't think anyone takes it seriously. The media has worked tirelessly to undercut this. Anyone supporting carrying it out would be destroyed in the public relations arena by the media, the major world powers would instantly cut off all meaningful trade with America probably including dropping the US dollar as world reserve currency. Additionally we'd be probably be facing military reprisals from the world's most powerful militaries of Russia and China. Since I'm aware of all of this, I think it can be said with near absolute certainty the Iranians are too.
Unfortunately sometimes in life people make bad choices. When this happens one can only be left with a few choices that are all bad. In this case, the task is to choose the least bad. It seems nations are no different. Due to a series of spectacularly bad choices over the last 25+ years America really has no good choices in dealing with Iran. The least bad one I can see at this point would be to try and make some kind of a deal with Russia to try and get them to limit their support for Iran perhaps making the problem easier to deal with. A similar type of deal could be made with China.
As stated, no good options. It is perhaps, however, helpful that at least a few US commentators have caught on even if they are about seven plus years late. Once reality is recognized for what it is and not what one wishes it to be, proper planning and courses of action can be set in motion. The time is late. I pray it is not to late!!