For those worried... Could we take Iran next month?

<-NOT Invasion..






First we go to the objective in Iran... "On 28 October 2003 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on "Iran - Security Threats and US Policy". This hearing included an exchange between Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State:
Hagel: Regime change in Iran - is that our policy?
Armitage: No, sir.
Hagel: What is our policy?
Armitage: Our policy is to try to eliminate the ability of Iran to carry forward with disruptive policies, such as the development of WMD [weapons of mass destruction], such as the abandonment of human rights, such as repression against minorities, such as religious oppression against the Bahais, and to try to get them to eschew their state sponsorship of terrorism." (THANKS AGAIN GLOBALSECURITY.org)

Think Shock and Awe II
(Note: that's a B52 and a B2 taking off from Diega Garcia.)
The question is not about land forces... though we clearly have enough... the issue will be:
1.Identification of targets
2.Air supremacy for 2 days
3. Available payload & penetration capability

1.First the targets... sources claim that there are perhaps 2 dozen sites of interest with regard to nuclear development. Due to the urgency of taking out ALL of the research facilities we must assume that there will be more bombed than that. Our satellites have been locked onto the major sites for years. The smaller and possibly mobile sites will have to be revealed by human intelligence from defectors or careful attention via satellite.

As with any air campaign there will need to suppress enemy Surface to Air Missile (SAM) batteries as well as concentrated Anti Aircraft Artillery (AA guns). Many of these are fixed leading them to have been spotted and plotted by our military. Unfortunatly Iran is currently in negotiations to aquire 29 SA15 Gauntlet systems which are some very nasty low to medium altitude mobile SAM's that Iran may deploy before we can hit them.

2. Air supremecy.... Iran can mount an estimated 20 F-14A's, an undisclosed number of Su-25's, and perhaps 7 Tu-22Ms, 19 MIG-27s, and several MIG-31s (unconfirmed)(MIG 31 pictured at right)

In the end our fighters and bombers will have to contend with at most 60-70 fourth generation fighters. Those numbers are high due to the "soft" nature of the "generations". For those who are not analysts aircraft are generally grouped into generations to match up common capabilities. All F-14's, F-15's, F-16's, and F-18's are 4th generation fighters. In addition we now have a wing of 5th generation fighters at our disposal. On December 15, 2005 the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley was officially using F-22's and operational.

We have not had a problem with Air Supremacy since mid WWII. It is confounding to me that anyone would think a pushover like Iran will do us in. However there are those who think our military is stretched too thin.

F-22's- about 80-90?? (couldn't find a hard number just a delivery timetable that was fuzzy)
Overall Fighters on Active duty as of 2001- 906 Air force, 432 Navy, and 280 Marine fighters.(almost exclusively all being fourth generation or higher)
Overall fighters in Reserve- Approximatly half the active duty in all branches



3. Payload and penetration
Active force of B52's- 85 (last picture below... huge beasts)

Active force of B-2's- 21 (Stealth Bombers)

Enough said... but just to teach a bit of respect...


So to the sniveling wusses out there that don't understand that we can take anyone, anywhere, at anytime and take China just for fun ain't got no sense.