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Post by Admin on Sept 16, 2019 22:18:47 GMT
The United States has issued satellite images and cited intelligence to back its allegation Iran was behind attacks on major Saudi oil facilities. Iran denies involvement in Saturday's air attacks, which were claimed by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen. But unnamed US officials speaking to US and international media say the direction and extent of the attacks cast doubt on Houthi involvement. The incident has cut global oil supplies by 5% and prices have soared. What is the US saying? Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran at the weekend, without providing any evidence, prompting Tehran to accuse Washington of deceit. Tweeting on Sunday, President Donald Trump stopped short of directly accusing Iran, but suggested possible military action once the perpetrator was known. One official said there were 19 points of impact on the targets and the attacks had come from a west-north-west direction - not Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen, which lies to the south-west of the Saudi oil facilities.
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Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2019 18:26:33 GMT
This weekend’s attacks on Saudi oil production were a warning sign that the always-dangerous Persian Gulf is sliding toward a set of dangers that Donald Trump is entirely unequipped to handle. The drone attacks that knocked 5 percent of global oil production offline illustrate both the emerging texture of modern warfare and the externalities that test every American president.
Worst of all for both American and global security, the attack exposes Trump’s shit-tier leadership for what it has always been: weak, strategically unmoored, and capricious.
Donald Trump’s dick-swinging tough-guy act has always had a demonstrable falsity to it, a gimcrack exterior of bluster and martial swagger that sells only to his credulous base of reality-TV-addicted cultists. International crises are measured in the most stark and painful terms; in blood and treasure. There’s no next-day Kellyanne Conway spin or safe-space-crying pillow on Fox & Friends when the stakes are global stability and order—particularly when the dancers at this hoedown will soon have nukes and human lives are at stake.
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Post by Admin on Sept 18, 2019 1:21:48 GMT
The US has reportedly identified locations in Iran from which drones and cruise missiles were launched against major Saudi oil facilities on Saturday.
Senior US officials told media outlets that the locations were in southern Iran, at the northern end of the Gulf.
Saudi air defences did not stop the drones and missiles because they were pointed southwards, to prevent attacks from Yemen, they added.
Iran denies involvement in the attacks, which disrupted global oil supplies.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels said they had launched the drones that struck the Abqaiq oil processing plant, the world's largest, and the Khurais oilfield.
They have launched attacks into Saudi Arabia before, but US officials said on Sunday they believed the drones and missiles did not originate from the south or south-west, and instead were launched from the north or north-west.
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Post by Admin on Oct 31, 2019 20:32:33 GMT
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Post by Admin on Nov 1, 2019 0:12:44 GMT
Riyadh seems to realize it needs better missile defenses. “Saudi Arabia has been in talks to acquire the same S-400 advanced air-defense system that Turkey recently bought from Russia,” Marc Champion wrote for Bloomberg.
Russia pairs its S-400s with the smaller Pantsir-S1 system, to handle low flying and short range missiles that would slip past the larger ballistic missile defense system. Though Russia has deployed S-400s in northwestern Syria, it has used the Pantsir system to counter drone strikes.
"Ideally, the Saudis need layered defenses, including short-range point defense systems like the German Skyshield or Russian Pantsir to allow rapid engagements of small threats with cheaper systems than the massively expensive Patriot," Justin Bronk, research fellow for air power and technology at the U.K.'s Royal United Services Institute, told Champion.
But all kinds of traditional air-defenses could struggle to keep up with small, inexpensive drones firing even smaller, cheaper precision munitions.
“Here's a cold hard reality that most people just don't understand, including many defense-sector pundits—air defense systems, no matter how advanced and deeply integrated, aren't magic,” Tyler Rogoway wrote at The War Zone. “They have major limitations, especially considering most primarily rely on ground-based sensors.”
GPS is even more of a revolutionary capability. It's incredible pinpoint accuracy really has become more concerning since the hobby drone industry exploded and now components to control drones via GPS are somewhat off-the-shelf in nature and are supplied from manufacturers around the globe. With these two things combined, a bad actor has both the targeting intelligence and the precision targeting capabilities available for a minuscule fraction of what they cost in the past and without any major barriers of entry.
These types of strikes don't have to originate beyond a border, they can even originate from anywhere, including right here in the U.S. against U.S. targets. We must change our way of thinking when it comes to precision munitions and drones, and especially the imaginary line that still seems to separate them. In addition, confronting this issue just won't be about fielding near and very costly military gear, it will also be about implementing, regulations, working with the global community and a lot of intelligence gathering. The best and cheapest way to stop any attack is to do so before they start.
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