Posted on 08/14/2014 11:28:14 AM PDT by SJackson
Boruch Shubert Leave a comment (0) Go to comments
According to a report in the Washington Post, the Pentagon signaled on Tuesday that it is considering to send its largest ever shipment of Hellfire missiles to Iraq as the government there hunkers down for a prolonged battle against radical Islamic terrorists who have asserted control over hundreds of square miles of territory across western and northern parts of the country. Pentagon officials disclosed that the State Department has approved the possible sale of 5,000 AGM-114K/N/R missiles and related parts and training. The estimated cost of the transaction would be approximately $700 million, and it would be much larger than previous shipments of Hellfire missiles to Iraq.
The move is not considered surprising, as it was reported at the beginning of July that State Department officials had informed lawmakers that the Obama administration wanted to send at least 4,000 more Hellfire missiles to Iraq.
The Iraqi military used up its inventory of about 300 Hellfire missiles in June as ISIS forces seized territory in numerous parts of the country. Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, stated last month that the United States would ship approximately 800 more of the missiles by the end of July. The missiles are deployed from several different aircraft, including the Iraqi air force’s AC-208 Cessna Caravan.
Thats my understanding as well, just about the first thing Israel does when it gets a new weapon is reverse engineer it so it can build it’s own if needed.
The best exsmple of this is the Kfir fighter-bomber. Much improved reverse engineered Mirage III that the Israelis put into production after the French threw on an arms embargo.
The Israelis have a lot of nifty in house developed weapons. Popeye and Delilah standoff precision missiles. I’m positive that they have either a reverse engineered Hellfire, or some other missile in the same class, all set and ready to go.
For ISIS, with love.
Sincerely,
BHO
In the case of the A-10 it’s that the fighter jocks in the Air Force want it gone ASAP so it can’t be used to impinge upon the latest/greatest wondertoy (F-35).
Not only is this NOT to Israel, I’d be cautious about the supply chain for delivery. Wouldn’t put it past our Islamist to make sure it crosses a link with questionable access to IS, if you catch my drift.
No, they’re still a missile used almost everyday.
Huh? Free. How so? If it’s an FMS sale to Iraq, it’s not free.
“The best exsmple of this is the Kfir fighter-bomber. “
Actually, that was stolen. The Israelis sold an advanced electronic design system to the French and then set up a French company to covert the Mirage’s drawings to electronic copies. In the process they copied the drawings. Then, they set about fixing the Mirage’s inherent flaws. They then attempted to sell the fixes to the French who said no, and continued to produce a flawed design. It was made into an awesome movie, the title of which escapes me at the moment. Perhaps someone with a better memory can recall?
It would see that a better strategy would be to disintegrate IS (Islamic Savages) ourselves.
That is a crazy number of guided missiles. Enough to wipe out the mechanized divisions of a couple of decent sized countries.
I think we need to put a reality check on whether they have the means to deliver that many Hellfires, or if it is just cover for the procurement for us or other major powers to use them in the region on their behalf.
“Huh? Free. How so? If it’s an FMS sale to Iraq, it’s not free.”
You, the, taxpayer pay the US company to build the product. The way it works is Uncle Sugar gives a country a credit, about two billion a year for Israel, when I dealt in this. They get to spend the money (your taxes) over here. Tadiran was gaming the system and they set up a US division called Talla-Com Industries to build the hardware they bought. They got to set the price and keep the profits. (Nifty, eh?) They also got a significant US Army contract and made a nifty profit on that too.
According to this, the Navy is supposed to cancel acquisition of new Hellfire’s next year. If we deplete our stockpile now, will we be able to replace them?
We are replacing them with a new type of missile...
But the point is valid. Should we have a lot of the old ones around until we prove the new ones in combat for a while?
Frankly though, this is a military matter. It’s hard to armchair quarterback this. May be no issue at all. Who knows. We never will.
They probably changed the name of the Tomahawks as keeping the name would be racist. Of course Hellfire may be offensive to Satanists so....
The Navy can choose not to buy them. The Army is the single manager for conventional ammunition. The Army and the Air Force and others want them badly and there are plenty of foreign military sales for these.
It's a military matter, with Obama calling the shots. That's like being a Nascar driver and finding out Perez Hilton is your new crew chief.
They are going to be fired AT Israel. The Iraq government will collapse, putting these missiles into the hands of ISIS. They will eventually turn them on Israel once ISIS has taken over Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. This is Obama’s plan - to arm ISIS by putting weapons into the hands of their enemies who will eventually be defeated.
That’s a great analogy.
No hellfire missiles for Israel. Let’s send ‘em to Iraq instead, a country being overrun by jihadists. What could possibly go wrong? Our tax dollars hard at work to usher in the long-awaited global caliphate.
So who are the missiles for?
How many of these will end up being used against us?
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