I am still trying to figure out how this makes sense.
How Iran’s Drones Hit America’s Achilles Heel
Politico reports How Iran’s Drones Hit America’s Achilles Heel
The abrupt evacuation of American bombers from a key U.K. airbase underscores the extreme vulnerability facing the world’s most powerful fighting force and its NATO allies — as cheap drones and off-the-shelf tech transform warfare.
President Donald Trump has insisted Iran’s military is “completely destroyed” due to eight months of attacks from American and Israeli firepower. But Tehran continues to strike back with low-cost Shahed drones that have kept the Navy from returning to U.S.-friendly ports in the Middle East and severely damaged an American airbase near Iran. Warnings about Iranian drones even led to the evacuation of all U.S. bombers from Britain’s Fairford air base this week and sent Trump scurrying into a catering cart in July as he left a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
The actions underscore the pervasiveness of these new threats — and just how unprepared U.S. and European officials are to tackle a new kind of warfare.
“What worries me is a growing possibility of ‘drone terrorism’ and ability of different semiorganized groups and vile individuals to act against our infrastructure by cheap, even household made, means,” said a senior European defense official.
American officials are recognizing similar limitations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently established a new combatant command focused on drone warfare, but it will likely be years before it yields results on the battlefield.
Iran can “apply all of this asymmetric pressure on us,” which wasn’t the case even a few years ago, said a U.S. official, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.
The Pentagon and NATO did not respond to requests for comment.
“There were some threats, and rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy,” Trump said about the decision to move the bombers. “But why should we leave them there? So we moved them around a little bit.”
Military leaders are still weighing whether to rebuild the base in Bahrain — and how to strengthen it if they do. Weeks of ballistic missile and drone attacks damaged the command center, satellite terminals, and logistics warehouses. Some troops had to relocate to Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, and can’t return due to the continuing Iranian threat. Other troops from a Qatar base have been working from Shaw Air Base in South Carolina since the start of the strikes.
“You’ve got to ask, ‘Do we invest a lot to rebuild this, or do we do something else?” the U.S. official said. “I don’t know that we know enough right now to be able to answer that.”
No Pentagon Comment
O.K. I’ll comment.
It’s one thing to be worried about Iranian drones in the Mideast. And it’s humiliating enough to have to admit that the US cannot protect US troops and allies in the region.
But now we are fearful of Iran attacking US bases in the U.K.
This is a serious WTF kind of issue.
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Addendum
There is no way to make an sense out of Trump’s lie other than it’s just another Trump lie.
I find no evidence of a recent church fire involving meth. Halfway Post is no longer trusted by me for anything.
As for Republican Rep. Brett Easterbrook allegedly paid $500 for sex, isn’t that convenient right before the midterms? An allegation is not proof of anything. Again, very questionable.
FYI: the twitter post on the meth pastor is satire.
FWIW: it is nowadays increasingly difficult to tell the difference between satire and reality.
I will find fault with the satire site for being lazy in execution of the joke, though – either state actual facts as the joke which is its own punchline (á lá Norm Mc Donald); or, start with something believable, and then ratchet it up to total absurdity. The problem is, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, life is now outstripping satire – so the joke was actually too believable.
See for example, “many such cases”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Haggard
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/bob-coy-founder-of-calvary-chapel-fort-lauderdale-accused-of-molesting-child-9827948/
https://www.christianpost.com/news/megchurch-pastor-paula-white-marries-3rd-husband-former-journey-rocker-jonathan-cain-shes-his-4th-wife.html
Warfare has dramatically changed. A co-ordinated attack on US bases around the world using drones could theoretically wipe out a large percentage of very expensive, very time consuming to replace Military planes. It’s to the point now where you almost have to keep all of your planes in hangars of some sort. Even an open hangar door with a drone makes the plane vulnerable. We saw the exact thing happen against Russian planes a year or so ago.
Just like elephants were war machines, so to say, they were followed by white elephants. Whether the Indian or the Usonian empire, all empires are fallen by the sunken costs of white elephants.
The difference is that Iran cannot use American satellite reconnaissance.
As if the Usonians were the only ones who supplied satellite reconnaissance to their fodder…
The line “this is a lie from Trump and an intelligence failure”. This line could be standard after most things Trump says.
Probably a smart move. Machine gun, aircraft carrier, etc. The nature of war has changed once more. I dont think trumps sons and any one in this administration is smart enough to figure out the new defense. Profit bigly yes produce equipment and tactics no.
This is war, people. EXPECT fake propaganda. “Babies on bayonets” and everything short of it.
I doubt the whole UK airbase story and the intelligence “failure”.
I bet this shit is completely made up to scare people or serve as misdirection.
For sure, there is something deeply odd about the whole ‘ airbase terrorists ‘ saga, & the silence from authorities since – it’s certainly a fact that in today’s world, nowhere in Europe is any safer than US bases in the ME: it’s difficult to process just how profoundly the geo-political world, & the nature of warfare has changed, almost in the blink of an eye.
100%. Can’t believe ANYTHING from ANYONE
First: everything, no matter how trivial, that Trump says is a lie.
Second, he is deeply paranoid about death. But I’m not sure this is the case here. He has also staged assassination attempts to help his narrative. If you are to survive all of these mishaps then you must be the anointed one.. I know, it sounds pretty crazy but I’m not sure that makes it crazy anymore.
got off the phone with friends in Iran, it was a long conversation.
Iran Oil Minister resigned yesterday, noone knows why. rumor is he fucked something up with the Bahrain China oil smuggling operation.
2 billion US dollar was released into the Iranian economy also yesterday to help curb inflation, which is horrendous.
food, medicine and water all available. some hoarding going on by my friends and other Iranians as everyone expects the war to resume soon, especially since Trump announced he wasn’t going to bomb Iran b4 the mid terms. hoarding dollars too.
they are going to head north east soon, as they live in southern tehran and not
wanting to be around when the bombing starts.
there are 10 Iranians leaders who are supposedly working with the US and we apparently asked Israel not to kill them. got a good laugh outta that 1. If 10 leaders get bombed by Israel, we will k ow it’s true.
I think that is about it for relevant items.
and for the haters out there, stu and his ilk, the Strait is closed to Iranian shipping and airports are virtually shut down. every thing goes in and out by road or rail including oil.
Just think if T-rump hadn’t torn up the JCPOA and hadn’t listened to war mongering creep Netanyahu, none of us would be in this mess. Stop crowing because Trump only destroyed things a little bit less than everyone expected.
Iran has become Trump’s Vietnam.
Not unless he invades. He still has the ability to just leave, take all the ships and go home. But the Israeli lobby will declare that any pullout means he is a loser, and he won’t be able to stop that narrative from permeating throughout the mainstream media.
What Israel wants, Israel gets.
Notice that Biden did not restore the JCPOA.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/pete-hegseth-says-public-can-watch-firing-squads-execution-fort-hood-s-rcna602395
Meanwhile we’re “winning” by bringing back public executions!
This country will not bounce back from this. We are a joke. We have established to everyone on earth that we cannot be trusted, cannot be taken seriously, and act just as bad as the Russians we love to whine about. A country based entirely on having good relations with others melting down this way, entirely self inflicted, is going to go down in history as a defining event of the 21st century.
I take it you aren’t old enough to remember Viet Nam, and don’t know anything about how Latin Americans felt about the gringos in the twentieth century. Then there was a large slice of the working class who looked forward to a Communist revolution.
There has been a lot of hatred for America for a long time. To what extent it is justified is another question.
Public executions is a disgusting new low, I find it difficult to believe how depraved the current US government has become.
They are rubbing our noses in it. “We have power and can do anything we want. You do not.”
Russia livestreams public executions?!?
I saw a news report saying that Iran and Afghanistan were the only nations still doing public executions
Concealing weapons in cargo containers and elite forces as asylum seekers are now national threats. In response international trade and immigration will be curbed or halted. Nations that are the most self sufficient will survive the best.
Don’t forget your cookbook for foraging
Boil pine needles, for Vitamin C.
they were always national threats.
a bomb on an oil tanker or a nuke in a cargo ship would destroy a port.
the new threat is people can buy delivery systems from hobby shops. international trade has nothing to do with that.
Actually the new threat is that the USA through its leaders is treating the rest of the world like shit and the blowback is coming
Its just the reality of modernization. Yes its a scary thought that we had to move our bombers but its better than false bravado and having the planes get blown up. What’s funny is if it happened under Democrat leadership, the Republicans would be raking them over the coals.
Once automated countermeasures are developed that are safe to operate in populated areas the balance will shift back the other way.
I’m sorry but to say that anything will shift back flies in the face of the reality of modernization. You don’t go back from this you find a different direction forward.
Famously, generals are famous for fighting the last war.
The balance is always shifting back and forth, not talking about the tactics. Ground power before airplanes, then air power develops and is dominant, then anti-air guns, then jets, then ant-air missiles, then counter measures on airplanes, etc.
A guy with a shotgun can easily take out a drone. A web of AI guided shotguns could protect entire areas. When that happens then the balance will have shifted. Or if not shotguns, then energy weapons, who knows.
Has anyone created the T.L.I. Yet?
“TRUMP LIED INDEX.” In a range of 3,000 to 5,000 a month per period.
Yes, Trump menstruates.
Energy beam weapons plus AI guidance will protect many strategic assets. They will have to sort Amazon nuisances from terrorist ones. On and on the arms race and guaranteed funding will spiral. We are the usual hostages.
Can’t afford it. That’s the bigger problem.
In 2001, after 9/11, I had a foreshadowing vision of this. I thought, if the terrorists really had any resources, it should be easy to load nuke bomb parts on trucks around the nearby international border, drive them up the few miles completely unprotected coastal road straight to the back base gates here, drive off responders with automatic rifle fire, assemble them, detonate and poof. Goodbye a huge segment of the Pacific fleet.
This threat not materializing is what convinced me the war-promoting threat posture of W. Bush was complete propaganda BS. The bad guys were a whole planet away, in caves. Yet he used it to be reelected years later, with his ridiculous color-coded terrorist threat graphics. Stupid Americans.
But here’s a new twist. Never did a species’s hubris so perfectly and completely germinate this risk. And AI will generate clusters of stuff like this.
if one had read the PNAC in the 1990s, and watched who and how “they” bombed the us embassies in east africa in 1998. plus the intel chatter in summer of 2002, the morning of sep 11, 2001 was obviously a case if the back gate being left open on purpose. for the purpose to allow the barbarians inside for the one way flights to twin towers and on to DC……the past 25 years has been high cotton for the MICC. the doublw c stands for congressional complex. which ike explained. on his last day. he was a coward to do that on his way out the door. ike also started our mess in iran with his 1953 backed coup
The word “Clusters” provoked a phrase ending in Fuck.
No need for nuclear weapons. Just keep coming up with creative attacks on transport, infrastructure, politicians, business leaders, etc..
Make the Homeland Security Gestapo play a game of paranoid wackamole, constantly reacting to new attacks and trying to guess what stunt the terrorists will pull next.
Given the effective drone range Ukraine has demonstrated in Russia, there are an infinite number of drone launch positions, land and sea, in range of UK/US facilities
Or in any country
It’s a new day
And how do you separate independent actors from state actors?
Lots of mischief to come
i don’t think anyone is acting.
Ukraine has not demonstrated anything other than a willingness to press gang men off the street.
That is all NATO.
If it’s the RF’s largest refinery, it covers square miles.
Do you think you can explode 20 ²miles of plant with a 30kg charge?
Yes, some spectacular fires will ensue (refineries are full of fuel).
Refineries literally cook oil and condense gases.
Nobody is better prepared to deal with fires than refineries.
The news is so full of ridiculous stories, most of which are psy-ops.
Nuf said.
The only thing we can conclude seriously is that the US does not have any workable Air Defense assets, and its much vaunted military is a PR mirage to cover a gigantic money laundering scheme.
Our air defense has always been a moat of two oceans and strong allies on land.
Oops.
Mish, the issue of ‘drone terrorism’ is being swept under the carpet. The number of westerners participating in the Ukraine war where they receive accelerated training or gain experience using drones will come back to haunt western governments soon. Security measures focus on frisking individuals whereas a drone operator can stay far away and carry out whatever they intend to.
Another issue that is likely to be contentious will be the question ‘does the second amendment include the right to own drone weapons’
I bet making drones in England would be easier than smuggling them in. I bet you can probably order the parts on Amazon.uk.
If Iran can launch a few drones from a portable platform in the UK then they can do it in the U.S. or anywhere in the world. I think they learned this from Ukraine.
https://www.breezyscroll.com/world/how-ukraine-used-drones-hidden-in-trucks-to-strike-five-russian-airbases/
There is no target these drones on moving/roving platforms can’t hit and the kicker is that it only takes a few hundred thousand dollars to cripple $100+ million dollar jets, ships, bases, refineries, power grids, nuclear plants, etc.
The asymmetric calculus has changed way in favor of low cost actors against high priced targets.
Long term, freelance pirates and others will learn to use this system to cause havoc all over the world once empires start collapsing.
So why is the U.S. spending $1 trillion on pointless military hardware?
Yes, this is my reading from multiple sources as well.
This is not “Iran’s military”. These are potential Iranian or Iranian-affiliated terrorists that can launch low-end drones from many different places in many different ways.
It’s not a ‘military’ issue – unless you consider these occurring more often because we started a military war with Iran. But it will be national or local law enforcement that has to try to deal with these potential deadly outcomes now.
Didn’t the CIA and MI6 use their Ukrainian proxies with success attacking Russian strategic bombers last year?
Don’t you know, when WE do it, then that makes it okay!
When they do it, then it’s dirty rotten underhanded cheating.
it certainly isn’t terrorism when you strike a military asset, even if it’s Iranians who do it.
bombing civilians off the coast of South America is definitely terrorism, even when Americans do it.
destroying bombers at a military base, I believe the word we are looking for is sabotage, not terrorism.
The Pentagon strike in 9/11 was considered terrorist.
By whom?
“So why is the U.S. spending $1 trillion on pointless military hardware?”
Because it makes the military industrial complex a lot of money
The major reason our infrastructure like electrical grid, airports etc haven’t been attacked is that Iran’s leaders know that the majority of Americans do not support the war, if they attack inside our borders or sink an aircraft carrier the sentiment would change and a ground invasion might be possible and approved by the public.
Ground invasion then WW3 then martial law invoked to stop the election….then civil war in the US….interesting times.
I agree with Easterbrook: pedophiles like him should receive capital punishment.
Then again, laws only apply to those outside of the Epstein Club.
For better or worse, I mailed in my ballot earlier this week.
mailed mine in today
and received the $90 that paid for my upcoming cheap seats at the NHL game
so brave. i’m scared to vote by mail. the deep state will know
Does everyone who votes get the $90?
Just a matter of time before ground invasion. WW3 coming. Recently read that France has sent troops to Saudi Arabia. Its coming. Somebody F’d up. No one saw this coming?? Like to see who is responsible for this exposed. Most likely the fuher didn’t listen to his generals. He knows more than them
I’m going to talk to my Iranian friends in a couple of minutes.
everyone except the cult knows Iran still has considerable military capabilities.
The UK should be left to its own devices and demise, regardless.
So much for NATO, eh?
Everybody knows that NATO are the US and their voluntary cannon fodder. Only the new comers in Eastern Europe actually believe that the US would trade a million people in San Antonio for a million people in their countries.
Where else do those easterners have to turn?
And yes, look what happened to Czechoslovakia and Poland in the run-up to WW2, even after the German invasion and explicit declaration of war by Britain and France on Germany. The French just dug in. The USSR was on the eastern end of all that, and even after WW2, the west left those eastern countries to Stalin’s tender mercies.
The difference now is intercontinental missiles. which might lead a USA to engage, but that would roll the dice on global conflagration. so no. San Antonio vaporizes that way too.
Oh, and treaty structures mean even less from our side in the Trump era. He hates losers, you know. The German Chancellor in 1914 called treaties mere “scraps of paper.” Well, we have that kind of brittle benighted tough-guy leadership now, not encouraging for anyone’s stable expectations. Maybe we are fortunate Russia’s military is somewhat degraded at the moment.
I will be interested to see if and when anybody feels they have the “minerals” or the occasion to test all this. North Korea?
We don’t owe “those easterners” anything. They survived for millennia without being American catamites.
Those eastern countries were part of the Axis Powers.
And quite enthusiastic Axis satellites, for the most part.
We should not be on the hook to fight europes wars for them.
Again.
For that matter, europe would have a lot fewer security problems, but for America’s constant wars of aggression.
I think the thought at the time was that if Russia takes over Europe, it would then be in a position to take the Middle East in alliance with China. Then we know what is next. This is why you make alliances so bad shit is less likely to happen. Then you get an idiot in charge who thinks everyone else is stupid and rolls the dice on the balance of power and comes up snake eyes.
Everyone is sitting back in their easy chair thinking “all this doesn’t impact me, my plans are unaffected, I’ve still got food on the table and vacations to nice places so let Iran burn, let gaza burn, and to hell with Britain”. Until one day suddenly your standard of living and way of life is impacted and by then it is too late you’ve burned your bridges and everyone who might be able to help you says “let them burn”.
That strikes me as a reasonable point of view. I don’t think you can generalize. Some alliances are necessary and justified: others are not.
This isn’t “Risk!”