Consider these factors as the Pentagon dissects AUKUS
Read More »Tag: Missile defense
Overextending America: Israel’s Interceptor Shortfall + My Commentary
This isn’t just about missile inventories. It’s about a superpower stretching its supply chains thin while picking fights on multiple fronts. As analyst Brian Berletic warned: “The US is unprepared for the scale of war it is provoking around the globe” (RAND might call it “Overextending America”—assuming they ever write the sequel). The numbers may look technical, but the pattern is strategic exhaustion. Below is the report—and my commentary on why shortfalls in interceptors are just a symptom of something far broader.
Israel Is Running Low on Air Defense Interceptors
Read More »DOGE to Cut 1,000 Jobs at Largest U.S. Army Ammunition Plant+ More
DOGE to Cut 1,000 Jobs at Largest U.S. Army Ammunition Plant
The McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP), which is operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, is the largest ammunition depot in the United States.
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Menace from US expansion of Space Force in Japan goes beyond Asia-Pacific
By Brian Berletic
According to Japanese media, the US Space Force has stood up its most recent overseas component in Japan. This follows a similar component created in South Korea, both falling under its “Indo-Pacific” component command created in 2022.
Menace from US expansion of Space Force in Japan goes beyond Asia-Pacific
US Missile Agency Scales Back Guam Defence Plans + More
US Missile Agency Scales Back Guam Defence Plans
The project is designed to create “360 degree” protection for the U.S. Pacific territory from missile and air attacks of all kinds, the agency said. Plans include integrating Raytheon’s SM-6, SM-3 Block IIA, Lockheed Martin’s THAAD, and the Patriot PAC-3, which uses components from both companies, over about 10 years.
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Israel requests another THAAD system
THAAD transfer to ‘Israel’ points to crisis in defense systems: Report
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 on Friday reported that “Israel” has requested the US to deploy a second THAAD battery to bolster its defenses against a potential Iranian retaliation to its planned upcoming attack.
Related:
U.S. Missile Defense Is Under Strain
Read More »First Components of U.S. THAAD Missile Defense System Arrive in Israel, Secret Site 512 Expected to Play Key Role
The THAAD system is designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles during their final phase of flight. Instead of using explosive warheads, THAAD relies on kinetic energy to neutralize incoming missiles by colliding with them at high speeds. The system’s radar and interceptors allow it to detect and destroy threats both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Each THAAD battery typically includes six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, a radar system, and a command-and-control unit. A crew of approximately 95 U.S. soldiers operates the system.
This deployment follows Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Oct. 1, 2024, during which Iran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles, including the Fattah-1 hypersonic missile. Unveiled by Iran in 2023, the Fattah-1 can reportedly travel at hypersonic speeds and change trajectory mid-flight. While the U.S. has not yet encountered the Fattah-1 in combat, the THAAD deployment offers a chance to assess whether the system can counter this new Iranian missile.
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[2014] Israel’s Iron Dome Isn’t Working: A Weapons Expert’s Warning
“We’re not trying to bash Iron Dome,” says weapons scientist Richard Lloyd, author of a research paper that calls into question the effectiveness of Israel’s now famous rocket-defense system. “We’re trying to help Iron Dome. The way to help Iron Dome is to identify some of its problems.”
Representatives for the Israel Defense Forces claim that Iron Dome has been about 90 percent effective in knocking down Hamas missiles fired from Gaza. Lloyd and a handful of other outside experts, including Theodore Postol of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have been challenging the IDF’s assertions on Iron Dome’s success rate since at least 2012.
Israel’s Iron Dome Isn’t Working: A Weapons Expert’s Warning
Theodore Postal has been on Daniel Davis’ show recently.
H/T: PFYT2
Israel races to supply anti-missile shield
Israel races to supply anti-missile shield
“Israel’s munitions issue is serious,” said Dana Stroul, a former senior US defence official with responsibility for the Middle East.
“If Iran responds to an Israel attack [with a massive air strike campaign], and Hizbollah joins in too, Israel air defences will be stretched,” she said, adding that US stockpiles were not limitless. “The US can’t continue supplying Ukraine and Israel at the same pace. We are reaching a tipping point.”
Boaz Levy, chief executive of Israel Aerospace Industries, a state-owned company which makes the Arrow interceptors used to shoot down ballistic missiles, said he was running triple shifts to keep production lines running.
“Some of our lines are working 24 hours, seven days a week. Our goal is to meet all our obligations,” Levy said, adding that the time required to produce interceptor missiles was “not a matter of days”. While Israel does not disclose the size of its stockpiles, he added: “It is no secret that we need to replenish stocks.”
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The Israeli military claimed in April that, with the help of the US and other allies, it achieved a 99 per cent interception rate against an Iranian salvo of 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles.
But Israel had less success fending off a second Iranian barrage of over 180 ballistic missiles fired on October 1. Almost three dozen missiles hit Israel’s Nevatim air base, according to open source intelligence analysts, while one missile exploded 700 metres away from the headquarters of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency.
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“We are not seeing Hizbollah’s full capability yet. It has only been firing at around a tenth of its estimated prewar launching capacity, a few hundred rockets a day instead of as many as 2,000,” said Assaf Orion, a former Israeli brigadier general and head of strategy at the Israel Defense Forces.
“Some of that gap is a choice by Hizbollah not to go full out, and some of it is due to degradation by the IDF. . . But Hizbollah has enough left to mount a strong operation,” Orion added. “Haifa and northern Israel are still on the receiving end of rocket and drone attacks almost every day.”
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“During the October 1 attack, there was a sense the IDF reserved some Arrow interceptors in case Iran fired its next salvo at Tel Aviv,” said Ehud Eilam, a former researcher at Israel’s Ministry of Defence. “It’s only a matter of time before Israel starts to run out of interceptors and has to prioritise how they are deployed.”
Dana Stroul wrote the article that I previously posted back on September 28th.
Previously:
Israel and Hezbollah Are Escalating Toward Catastrophe (it’s not looking good for the IOF)
U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel + More Updates
US-Israel Inch Toward Wider, More Dangerous War
by Brian Berletic
Beginning in October 2023 a renewed cycle of violence began destabilizing the Middle East. Hamas’ October 7, 2023 military operation into Israeli-held territory served as a pretext for Israel, not to dismantle Hamas itself, but to conduct an indiscriminate punitive military operation against all of Gaza.
Related:
U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel + More Updates
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