🪖🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran’s disruption of Mideast communication hubs exposes cracks in US air defenses – expert

💬 “Disabling US radar stations in the Middle East is a serious loss because these systems play a key role in protecting American bases from missile threats,” military expert and air defense historian Yuri Knutov tells Sputnik.

The New York Times earlier published satellite images showing that Iranian missile and drone strikes had crippled communication infrastructure at several American military facilities in the Middle East.

💬 “This showed the ineffectiveness of US air defense systems, including Patriot missiles and short- and medium-range air defenses, which were unable to protect the facilities,” Knutov underscores, suggesting that it may take America up to three months to restore the damaged infrastructure.

He explains that disrupting American communication facilities is part of Iran’s tactic of attrition against the US and Israeli militaries, which could include a series of steps:

🟠Current use of drones and outdated ballistic missiles

🟠 Subsequent use of drones along with more modern missiles to deplete the bulk of US and Israeli interceptors

🟠 Deployment of sophisticated Fattah missiles capable of easily penetrating the remaining American and Israeli air defense systems

💬 “While the two’s missile systems may remain operational, they will simply be out of ammunition, which could inflict significant damage on both American military bases and Israel as a whole,” Knutov concludes.

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💸🇺🇸🇮🇷 Operation Epic Fury’s cost after five days: $3 BILLION and counting

Brown University’s Costs of War project is tracking the price of the US war against Iran in real time, revealing that it has already cost US taxpayers two and three billion dollars.

🟠 each day that the war continues costs $220M for sustained operations ($9.15M per hour, $2.5k per second)

🟠 50k deployed troops’ salaries = $40M

🟠 aircraft operational costs = $48M

🟠 ordnance = $35M

🟠 naval assets’ operational costs = $22M

🟠 fuel and logistics = $15M

🟠 C&C, reconnaissance, surveillance, cyber and space = $10M

🟠 overhead = $50M

Total ‘discrete costs’: $921M

🟠 the first day’s Tomahawk salvo cost $240M

🟠 the first 3 US fighters shot down cost $270M

🟠 naval forces’ attacks cost $75M

Brown also tallied the economic consequences, including:

🟠 oil prices – up 10.4-11.5%

🟠 Strait of Hormuz shipping – stopped, trapping ~20% of daily global oil transit in the Persian Gulf

🟠 the US stock market – down $1.15-1.5%

The project did not appear to factor in damage to US military bases in the region, including the AN/FPS-132 radar in Al Udeid Air Base, a $1.1B piece of hardware destroyed by Iran on the first day.

Two AN/TPY-2 fire control radars servicing THAAD ($400-500M apiece) destroyed in the UAE also don’t appear to be factored in, nor additional US aircraft lost Wednesday

The Iran war has a way to go to reach spending on the US’s post-9/11 wars ($8T over 20 years), but is already approaching those wars’ per diem average of $300M.

For context, interest on the US’s enormous national debt, soon to reach $39T, is set to reach $1T in 2026.

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