Not much comment on Iran's EW capability. The Persians are highly educated; their universities are very good; their level of mathematical ability is beyond question. (And they may even have Russian help). Unquestionably, for me, this means that their EW capability will be high. They have already demonstrated it a few years ago when they captured that US drone intact. And their is no reason to doubt the Iranian General who briefed yesterday that they launched a successful cyber attack on the US base (it is reported elsewhere that Iran took out all the comms with 9 US drones in the air after the base attack - and this scared the shit out of the Americans even more than the missiles). Iran is a very sophisticated enemy. The US underestimate them at their peril.

PS Smoothie - I feel your pain. Had dinner last night with a few "intelligent" people - the level of ignorance and the willingness to swallow MSM propaganda made me loose it I'm afraid. My wife was kicking me under the table.

Russia educated a large number of Iranian students, plus trained many Iranian officers, such as the case with Pr. 877 SSKs. As one my acquaintance stated few years back--Iran's problem: too many young mathematicians and engineers with no outlet to put their energy into. As I state all the time--Iran is not Iraq. Moreover, some Iranians, if mistakenly are called Arabs, will take it as a personal insult.

I've dealt w/ Iranian expats in the mining & energy biz... Sharp as tacks, they are. Of course, those sectors tend to attract the very best minds... ;-).
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Your comment fits the mold of Iran as a controlled society... Mullahs keep a lid on everything, from music & art to business formation and growing the economy. Clerics & RevGuard get first bite at all the best business deals & opportunities. And Iran lives in a world of sanctions, such that "normal" international business pursuits don't happen at a high rate. So what is a smart, young, ambitious guy to do? Become a missile engineer, or electronic warfare guy.

Yep. I can tell you one thing for sure--it was, of course fairly long time ago--Iranian crews (I know it from my classmates in Academy, younger generation) who they trained and then "delivered" subs to Iran, preferred actually to spend more time at St.Petersburg strip-clubs, LOL. They do, actually, have political officers of sorts (at least they had then). Evidently one of the ethnic Iranians either is or was recently a CO of one of the US Navy's CVNs, plus there are quite a few of them in NASA.

CO of USS Harry Truman was born in Iran. Family emigrated to US in 1979. He's an E-2 guy (airborne battle management)... Call sign "Hak." Public record...

Iran probably has more IQ>130 people than the rest of the Arab world combined.

No, you've got it all wrong, Iran is going to admit their sins and repent!

UKRAINE KNOWS !!!

https://www.dialog.ua/world...

UPD. Sadly, this time they did.

Sounds like my wife that agrees with me but doesn't like me 'pushing' it.

Which in turns may lead to those genderly incorrect articles on academia at UNZ

Good for you. You should have told those imbeciles to line up for enlistment or send their kids/grandkids to enlist.

The Pentagon is super slow to adapt and learn. If you understand that bureaucracy is an ancient organizational structure and that the organizational culture of the Pentagon is pathologically dysfunctional you could have predicted the moral and financial bankruptcy of America 15-20 years ago. The "Why?", finally made sense when I discovered what a sociopath was.

It's about time the US practices what it preachs and start behaving like a normal country instead of a spoiled narcissistic brat.

US military & strategic thought became lazy during the late days of the Cold War. It mirrored the decline & fall of the foundations of its opponent, USSR. Post-Cold War, US military & strategic thinking flushed into the sewer. It was all about maintaining the military as some sort of a social policy jobs program, operating legacy tech as the mission. And then came the "world-improvers" -- beginning w the Clinton Admin -- who worked to turn the world into a global "urban renewal" project; meaning to mirror the success US Big Govt showed in the slums of American cities from sea to sea. The past 30 yrs of US strategic thinking and related governance truly disgusts me.

Soviet union fall had very different reasons and Soviet military thought was doing quite well then along with military. Current russian military wonders is completion of what was started then and not finished earlier because of the disintegration of the Soviet state.
The soviet fall however is extremely regrettable because there was a new way how things can be done that Soviet union was showing to the world. USA fall long term is a very good thing because USA is a paragon of how things should be done the old way and basically a huge parasite. Many negative trends that are afflicting the world were started by USA. Unlimited individualism and consumerism would be a couple of those.

Why does almost every person on Earth feel the need to force others to bend the knee to their beliefs?

Religious beliefs are what one thinks should be done to promote survival in an afterlife, political beliefs are what one thinks should be done to promote survival in this world.

The world would be a far better, more civilized, of world if such beliefs were only shared on a voluntary basis.

As for individualism, I would rather be free than live in a modern day egalitarian hunter-gatherer tribe run by modern day psychopathic alpha-males.

That is certainly not a recipe for success.

It also mirrors the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. It was Emperor Augustus that decided the costs to further expand the Empire were too great after losing one (or two?) legions against the Germanic tribes.
The US has reached its greatest extent. We are living through it. The US didn't go forward into war with Iran twice. The odds of humanity surviving this immense turn of history is looking better.

Frankly, nothing in common. I read this comparison all the time.
Yes, Augustus decided not to continue along with expansion into Germany after losing 3 Varus legions due to ambush.
But he famously noted that it does not worth to go fishing with golden hook. Basically speaking, Germany was not worth fighting for. Poor and remote it had nothing to offer. Just a drain on resources. As long as conquest was moving smoothly it was ok, but after losses were inflicted Augustus decided it was not worth it.
Roman expansion under augustus was carried mostly to consolidate previous conquests and create strategical debth along core and strategical provinces also creating linkage.
When enemy far stronger than germans posed resources which made the whole conquest worthy no amount of resistance saved Dacians and Parthia also almost died under Trajan attack.
Roman policies were adequate and wise. Treaties were respected, allies supported and benefited. Empire was build around Mediterranean creating good communication and routes considering obviously limits of that day technology.
Rome did not behave like crazy and did not deliver threats that she could not follow through. When war was decided upon thorough preparations were taken. Political goals were achieved. Wars were won. When Adrian considered that empire was overextended in Parthis, he simply abandoned all conquered territories. Just like that.
Logical calm thinking USA,is not capable of. Rome truly based upon superior military and diplomacy dominance lasted many centuries. USA few decades. One hit wonder, lucky fool I would call it.

There recently was an article which says that was exactly the start of decline. That empire was expanding why led by people believing "Empire can not suffer defeat, ever". Being locally defeated empire should re-play the battle, again and again, until won, relentlessly. Everyone ahould know, if Empire said anything it would get it done. Maybe expanding into Europe was not worth it, but the goal set to Valrus had to be achieved regardless of costs, for making the point. Win first, deliberate later.

As far as Roman Empire was ruled by accountants, optimizing for instantaneous profits and losses, it started shrinking, beeing neebled by those who wanted their goals be met regardless of costs, slowly bur inevitably.

They said, USA not attacking Iran means accountants are ruling it and racing for instant local optimum they would long-term reduce USA from global to small spot.

Interesting account of Roman strategic concept of forward presence, versus administering the internal lines of communication...

I know what you mean. Disgusting like a shining moral sewer on a hill.

Just an observation , US cold war military geared for war with warsaw pact got defeated in Vietnam war , by people who commit to total war for their independence .. No slogan or propaganda can beat nationalism / self defence for a nation under attack by US , as vietnam resist both french and US with additional help by the chinese and the soviets.

the current US military are geared toward counter insurgency with high focus on air supremace against insurgents with no air defense.

A shooting coflict with Iran will prove to be US undoing as they will face formidable Air defense and different kind of war where the enemy can hit US staging areas and airfields.

i doubt diego garcia is save , iran can send sub delivered saboteur to DG or suicide troops inserted by civilian vessel..

Any US military planner or policymaker who seriously considers "waging war" against Iran should be committed to an insane asylum. Sad to say, they'll likely get tenure at certain universities, or a sweet sinecure at some Beltway "Think"-tank (ahem...).

An amphibious operation on Diego Garcia is an interesting idea. Given how small the base is, simply destroying aircraft is a simpler attack that achieves the needed results.

The tramp & nutNyahoo machismo show continues to be fun to watch. Both show off their penis worms as they arrogantly claim they can crush iran. Both the usa and israel keep banging on the doors and walls of their pissed-off neighbors' houses. That eventually gets you murdered whether in baltimore or baghdad.

A crushable iran is true if and only if they can mount a full-on nuclear war on iran. But such horrendous cheating means all bets are off, and iran's allies will provide the nukes required to melt down the american homeland too. Nobody, not even russia and china, can afford to stay in the sidelines in a nuclear war in the 2020s.

What i find truly amazing is that american zionists still believe crushing iran is easy enough. Israel, with 8 million jews stuffed in a small country, is nothing more than a carrier battle group marooned on land. Sitting ducks, with nice armor, nukes and all, are ... still sitting ducks. nutNyahoo should ask his technical crew just how few megatons are needed, or just a few thousand modern missiles are required to transform sitting ducks into nicely roasted peking ducks.

So a conventional war it is. The usa and israel has exactly zero, zilch and nada chances of winning a war with iran. The usa keeps forgetting that it is a dying empire with dying funding value and mental resources. Just like israel which oddly thinks dozens of f-35s will give it immunity through air superiority. Proof of this fact that iran will win comes from simply asking american and israeli war experts to go on cnn or the washington post on how they intend to win a war with iran.

Im sure these expert bloviators will say that it is as easy as winning a naval war against china, which is capable of launching only 3 new warships in a week. Or an even easier time against russia, which can launch only a few thousand hypersonic nuke missiles because its GDP is no bigger than that of texas.

They left equipment in the open on that base and ran away. No AA fire whatsoever.
This is how much they are ready to take a punch.

Yes, this is somewhat puzzling. As I said, let's wait and see where it all develops to, but as Twisted Genius succinctly observed--Iran now controls tempo because she has conventional superiority. Anyone who has precision-guided, stand off weaponry in good numbers will be on top.

The old submarine saying is, "There are two kinds of ships; submarines, and targets."
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The new version for land ops is, "There are two kinds of land-based military assets; precision-guided missiles, and targets." (And per the photos, those Iranian missiles were quite precise; bulls-eyes.)
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Iran and its missiles demonstrated that the entire strategic foundation for US mil presence in the Middle East is now obsolete. Everything the US would ever want to do there is now subject to Iran's version of "steel rain." Every runway, hangar, aircraft parking area; every supply depot or warehouse; every loading pier, fuel site, naval pier. Everything... is a target. And really... there's no amount of US "airpower" and "tech" than can mitigate the Iran missile threat.
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Meanwhile, related thinking... Iran's true strategic interest is NOT fighting a near-term war w/ USA. Iran wants US to exit Middle East; and Iran wants to be able to pursue its nuclear program. Soleimani or no, Iran appears to have its eyeballs fixed on the long-term goals.

The new version for land ops is, "There are two kinds of land-based military assets; precision-guided missiles, and targets."

Exactly, and Iran has long-range TLAMs in who knows what numbers, That, in its turn, brings about the next issue of range for Iranian indigenous anti-ship missiles. Not, of course, to mention the fact of only select people knowing if Russia transferred P-800 Onyx to Iran She certainly did it for Syria. If that weapon is there--the Persian Gulf and Hormuz Strait will be shut completely closed and will push out CBGs far into the Indian Ocean.

The US military concept is built on fire power superiority delivered from the air and well supplied ground forces with huge logistics foot prints.
I trained to fight the USSR and the tactical disposition could be compared to "scared hare" with great attention to shifting positions, camouflage and radio silence. Similar for out air force and navy. Apart from SOF US dont think like that.
A parallel can be found with the Israel-Hezbollah debacle in 2006 - the novelty was Hezbollahs rockets allowed a political-economic prize on Israel that prevented Israel from controlling the tempo of the operation and bombard a leisure from a distance.

It is simply pathetic after decades of talking non stop about developments of anti missiles and huge amounts wasted and nobody is responsible. This is the way capitalism works.profits is everything and outcomes secondary. Thankfully russia has got soviet foundation and things so far are working well. I come to think that in our times no serious industrial processes should be allowed to stay in private hands. Only services and so.e other simpler stuff under heavy state control to ensure quality. Otherwise profit orientation will eventually destroy everything like with Boing.

I assume you don't mean a free market when you use the term capitalism.

Free what?

And the PMUs are starting to move.

???

Andrei, when I read TTG's piece the other day I saw something interesting but could not ask about as Pat Lang has stopped comments. TTG said Iran has satellite guided missiles. For this, they wold need a number of navigation satellites or have access to another countries satellites. As far as I am aware, Iran does not launch its own satellites. Is what TTG said correct about Iran missile sat navigation and if so what or whos satellites would they be using. Any thoughts on this.

As far as I am aware, Iran does not launch its own satellites.

Wrong, they do:
Fajr (satellite)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Fajr
Operator ISA
COSPAR ID 2015-006A
SATCAT no. 40387
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass 52kg
Start of mission
Launch date 2 February 2015, 08:50
Rocket Safir-1B
Launch site Semnan
Orbital parameters
Reference system Geocentric
Regime Low Earth
Perigee altitude 231.2 kilometres (143.7 mi)
Apogee altitude 476.7 kilometres (296.2 mi)
Inclination 55.5 degrees
Period 91.5 minutes
Epoch 2 February 2015

Fajr (Persian: فجر‎, meaning "dawn") is an Iranian satellite which was launched in February 2015. An imaging satellite, Fajr also carries an experimental locally made GPS system.[citation needed] The satellite will have a life span of 1.5 years and an imaging resolution of 500 to 1,000 metres (1,600 to 3,300 ft). It is the first Iranian satellite to use cold gas thrusters for attitude control and is equipped with solar panels for power generation.

Fajr was launched by a Safir-1B rocket from the Iranian Space Agency's launch site in Semnan Province.[1][2] The launch took place at around 08:50 UTC on 2 February 2015, Iran's national day of space and the sixth anniversary of the country's first successful orbital launch. The satellite was deployed into a low Earth orbit.

On 26 February 2015 Fajr reentered earth's atmosphere after 23.8 days in orbit.[1] [3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Iran can use GLONASS (or even GPS) signal in its normal civilian "version"--that is enough for guidance. Yes, Iran doesn't have orbital grouping, Russia does;)

Clearly, Iranians know how to use GPS, etc... They can spoof & meacon with the best of 'em.

The Ukrainian passenger aircraft that recently crashed in Iran’s capital was brought down due to “human error” after flying too close to defense installations, triggering an accidental missile launch.

A military statement read on state media channels came as the first confirmation from Iranian officials that a missile, and not an engine fire, caused the crash last Wednesday. The statement noted that the shooting down was “unintentional” and maintained that those responsible would face consequences.

https://www.rt.com/news/477...

Wonder if Boeing could have some emitter to trigger that error....

Well kudos to Iran for admitting this and not trying to cover it up. Unless they were made to admit guilt.... I kid, I kid.

KAL-007 remake?

Of all jets that took of in that hour - only Ukrainian was mistaken for attacking one. Just be sheer chance, right?

Flight radar has a page on the incident with prior departures anf flight routs.. Mostly Airbus departures. One other Boeing took of just seconds before the Ukraine flight but it turned back to the east south east shortly after takeoff heading for Hong Kong.

I just posted an article that provides few different causes and motivation for the shooting down of the airliner. It's not obvious that it was Iran that did it by mistake.
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https://inforuss.info/chto-...

Lang is right. He is trying to point that for USA to at least preserve europe and the rest is has,to cut losses in ME. Sacrifice a couple of figures to get out of the trap. But american leadership seems too bad at chess. Gonna try to hold for everything until it loses all.

There are so many black swans now which presage the imminent end of the US Empire. The revelations about Boeing today being yet another example. Until recently I was thinking a few years; now I'm thinking a few days. In fact, it could already have happened.

https://www.zerohedge.com/m...

Death cross of the 50&200 day moving averages(blue&red dashed lines) in the US dollar index is bearish for the US dollar and bullish for commodities,

http://schrts.co/dhzXJArT

A fool and his US dollar hegemony is soon parted.

I quoted the whoke Seattle post in the comment to previous Smoothie post. For us those mails sound damned. But i am not sure many of simple people around the world and in USA read those. They long got bored and switched to other hot topics

Apologies - I did read your earlier post. Shocking stuff. Where will this end?

In normal world half Boeing white collars would already be behind bars.

But in our world... I am supprised those mails were let go public, were not classified by or something.

Those Boeing "quotes" are beyond shocking; they're disgusting. Scandalous. Outrageous... There's bellyaching in all organizations, I suppose. (Some days are better than others; I get it.) But this is toxic... It indicates that people up & down the line were/are jaded, cynical, embittered... They don't believe they can speak candidly to/through their chain of command. So they simply sabotage the organization with passive-aggressive loathing & ridicule. Boeing doesn't just need a new CEO... It needs a new board of directors, and a deep-scrub of senior management.
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From another angle... Boeing's great curse is its cash flow. Big Buck$ for those jets... All that cash is attractive to the scammers & looters of the world. There's a criminal class in the C-suites, another criminal class on Wall Street and of course the criminal class in Washington. The idea is to pinch every penny, despite the handsome prices on the menu list. And somehow convert the "savings" into a way to line people's pockets. Until it all comes crashing down, in every sense of the word.

This is an interesting article on the possible causes and motivations of the downing of the Boeing in Iran. It's clear that when we ask the question "Who benefits greatly from this event", we are forced to say the US. (Google translation is decent)
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WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE UKRAINIAN BOEING KILLED (show down) IN IRAN
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https://inforuss.info/chto-...