Posted on 12/28/2011 8:16:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I'll bet he felt we wouldn't tolerate a drone being captured either... surprise, surprise.
1. Take out their anti-ship missile and gun batteries from the air.
We don’t need much of anything in the water, but if we did, I leave the ACC’s out and have Aegis and others w Phallinx guns that can defend against swarms of anything.
Have you thought about what this would do to the Iranians? They are already handicapped from existing economic sanctions. How long would they last with a naval blockade?
What is the feasibility of building a pipeline across Saudi Arabia to a port on the Red Sea, or elsewhere? Probably not much chance of it happening, but it might be cheaper than having our Navy protect the world oil supply.
Nice post. Are we capable of launching an EMP that would fry their electronics or is that mostly smoke & mirrors?
MOAB!
I get it...and it can be defeated.
Just requires the will to use the overwhelming force.
If you’re going to shred the coast, you might as well whack their CCC and nuclear sites.
Do I care they’re hiding behind the skirts of civilian populations?
If we continue to allow enemies to define safe zones, we’ll never defeat them.
Cluster bombs worked really well during Operation Preying Mantis.
Why don’t we drill here and then have the Fifth Fleet close the Strait of Hormuz? Would solve a lot of problems.
I presume that most Iranian oil heads over to Japan and China.
Would Iran be damaged more, than Japan and China, if all the oil stopped flowing through Hormuz?
I thought that Iran was working on a terminal out on the Gulf of Oman?
Lastly, why don't we just have the UN add “oil tanker insurance” to the list of banned transactions on the Iranian boycott list? All paperwork, no pain for us. </ sarc>
Already exists for this possibility.
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It and the others won't carry all the oil that normaly flows through the Strait of Hormuz, but the 17% of the world's oil supply would not all be cut off.
Not shown on the above map is the new 1.5 MMBPD Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, bypassing the congested Hormuz Strait to southwestern part of the UAE.
More info at:
http://www.eia.gov/cabs/World_Oil_Transit_Chokepoints/Full.html
Would Iran be damaged more, than Japan and China, if all the oil stopped flowing through Hormuz?
I think so, but other may think differently.
I thought that Iran was working on a terminal out on the Gulf of Oman?
I don't know of any plans for such. They would have to also build extensive pipeline and storage capacity to do that.
Kharg Island, the site of the vast majority of Iran's exports, has a crude storage capacity of 20.2 million barrels of oil and a loading capacity of 5 million bbl/d. Lavan Island is the second-largest terminal with capacity to store 5 million barrels and loading capacity of 200,000 bbl/d. Other important terminals include Kish Island, Abadan, Bandar Mahshar, and Neka, which helps facilitate imports from the Caspian region.
The dashed lines shown below are planned expansions and new pipelines. I have not seen Iran planning that area.
Note:
Map in post 54
Red is Natural Gas, Green is oil, Blue is refined products.
Naval blockades are all out war. You really think Congress, much less Obie is up for that? Anyhow, assume we did it. What exactly would it handicap the Iranians from doing? Oppressing their people on mopeds less?
Besides, it just proves to the other tinpots in the world that you'd better nuke up and quick.
Now that’s a clear, concise and polished statement. Now if it can only be carried out.
Military ordnance is built to withstand EMP.
To prevent this, they have put the anti-ship missiles into the control of fanatical muslim Iranian Guards, not regular military. One approach they could take (among many) would be to give the missile crews sealed orders: in the event of general attacks by the US military, they must stay hidden in their caves, and obey their sealed orders. Orders to the 100s of missile batteries might say, “remain concealed until day 20 (or 30, or 55) after the war begins, and then attack any shipping in the straits that presents itself.”
All they need are spotters with binoculars to watch the straits for tankers, and attack any that they see.
Fanatical Japanese, following their “last valid orders,” stayed in caves in the Pacific for decades in some cases. Iranian Guards, briefed to the above plan in advance, would have no problem hiding for months on end. They would not need a modern, functioning command and control structure to carry out their orders.
Like I said, the Iranians are not stupid, and they can anticipate our counter moves, and create a plan based on countering them in turn.
In the end, it might take entire divisions of US military on the ground, going from ravine to ravine and cave to cave, to root them all out.
If you have an idea of how to stop them from launching their mobile missiles (solid fueled, firing from near horizontal in minutes after emerging from their lairs) when we could not stop giant liquid-fueled SCUDs from fring in the open Iraqi desert, please let us all know.
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