Friday, June 18, 2010

Gates and the Iran Missile 'Threat'

By Mark Pyruz

US intelligence has shown Iran could launch an attack against Europe with "scores or hundreds" of missiles, prompting major changes to US missile defenses, Pentagon chief Robert Gates said on Thursday.

President Barack Obama in September cited a mounting danger from Iran's arsenal of short and medium-range missiles when he announced an overhaul of US missile defense plans.

The new program, called the "phased adaptive approach," uses sea and land-based interceptors to protect NATO allies in the region, instead of mainly larger weapons designed to counter long-range missiles.- AFP


I suppose the US IC is including Turkey and Israel in this threat projection, otherwise the geography makes little sense for the types of MRBM and numbers of SSMs possessed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Also unclear are any sort of first or second strike threat projections against Europe "proper" from potential (re: imagined) SSM forces of the IRI.

This sounds a lot like a military-industrial sales pitch, as well as a duplicitous rationale for US forces positioned in areas to maintain strategic dominance and counter Russian influence.

Iranian MRBMs are under-tested, and as such represent a deterrence force far more than any actual effective offensive capability. That is to say they are almost purpose-built primarily to counter the weekly threats of Israeli attack against Iran's nuclear power infrastructure.

Update: Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Vahidi's response to Gates.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sure,at this stage Iran ahs the missiles to fly to US.

Nobody must wonder about that.Iranian policy has sense,it is not based in fantasy,if Iran would be weak,americans won´´t wait forever.

Iran has the means for strong military response to anybody who dares (if dares) to attack Iran.

Paul Iddon said...

"a duplicitous rationale for US forces positioned in areas to maintain strategic dominance and counter Russian influence."

spot on, reminds me of the excuse the US used to try and build that missile shield in Poland about 3 years ago.

b said...

The folks here in Europe laughed when they heard that Gates statement.

Yeah those missile can be launched "within 45 minutes" we reminded us.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to tell you that Nader Uskowi's blog is completely out of touch with reality.
I think, he is simply publishing what he believes Washington/the US government would like to read.
If you want to know what's really going on in Iran, you shouldn't rely on such a sycophant and bootlicker blog.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to tell you that Nader Uskowi's blog is completely out of touch with reality.
I think, he is simply publishing what he believes Washington/the US government would like to read.
If you want to know what's really going on in Iran, you shouldn't rely on such a sycophant and bootlicker blog.