Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
The MQ-9 Reaper drone was great when the enemy didn’t have anti-air capabilities, but when they do, the slow, loud, and radar-visible drone is easily shot down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPY7CFUNW5k
The A-10 can do one thing really well–blowing up stuff on the ground. But, it can’t do much else, and is only brought in after the most threatening air-to-air threats are destroyed or suppressed. The military would prefer to have more general and advanced craft than one with such a narrow use. Congress has kept it alive because it is popular and gives their constituents jobs. A major advantage of the A-10 is its cheaper to fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHDWAeAxAYE
“The new grenade, called the M111, becomes the Army’s choice for urban combat, when troops must clear indoor areas to take and hold territory…
It’s the first new grenade introduced for US forces since 1968
…The use of shock waves, or blast overpressure (BOP), kills or disables enemies with the force of the explosion, vaporizing the weapon’s plastic outer shell.
Troops outside an enclosed area can throw the new grenade into that area, and enemies cannot take cover behind interior walls, furniture or appliances that shrapnel may not be able pierce, the military said.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/us-army-first-grenade-since-080054444.html
The US, Gulf states, and Israel are quickly running out of missile and drone interceptors.
The US also used over 25% of their long-range Tomahawks, possibly 45% of their JASSMs, and over 25% of their ATACMS.
By mid-May, the US could be out of many of these weapons.
The US has failed to build sufficient manufacturing capability. It will take many years to replace these munitions.
The US will have to use dumber bombs and take more hits on the defense if the war goes on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0234zEi1AG4
An F-35 may have been hit by an Iranian anti-air missile. The plane and pilot survived, making it safely to a base in the Middle East. Stealth makes the F-35 harder to detect and hit, but not invisible. If a video given by Iran purporting to be the F-35 getting hit is real, then it looks like a smaller payload delivered by a relatively short-ranged infrared or electro-optically guided weapon, or even a shoulder fired missile. If a radar guided weapon targeted it, the plane would sense it and the pilot would be trying to avoid it. And if larger, longer-range weapons hit it, the plane would not have survived that size of payload.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEA-vXR3WgI
Militarily opening the Strait of Hormuz will be incredibly hard. Iran only has to get through once, the US needs to stop every weapon. It will require the great risk of putting a lot of forces close to Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRrfFhRxNi4
Iran was prepared for the US to dominate with “overwhelming” airpower. Iran saw the US take out Saddam’s centralized command with airpower and decided to focus on missiles, drones, and decentralization. Taking out the snake’s head is less effective when there are many snakes with their own weapons, each able to lash out. Iran knew it couldn’t go toe to toe with the US in the skies, so scattered and hid their weapons. Iran knows that the US would not like a long war, so they planned for a long war where a determined Iran can outlast a US that grows weary with the costs of war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGCjDWZthk0
Producing Iran’s shahed drone requires many advanced components. Logistic supply lines need to remain open for Iran to continue producing many of those. Not only can the US and Israel bomb the factorites themselves, but it can also disrupt these supply lines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv64arOPMhY
It looks like the US hit the Iranian girls school. Trump blamed Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrgOBN8sl6M
Some weapons the US is using in Iran.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4YEv4c9X8I