90% of Iranian Missiles Are Swatted Down, but Now There's a Major Cost Imbalance

In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, one of the success stories to come out of that conflict was the success of the Patriot missile systems in intercepting Iraqi Scud missiles. To this day, I'll buy any Desert Storm Patriot soldier a beer, and I know quite a few Desert Storm vets who feel the same way.

In today's Operation Epic Fury, though, the aerial threat has changed a great deal. Instead of Scud ballistic missiles, our forces and our allies are dealing with a very different threat, not only missiles but swarms of low-cost drones. Our forces and our allies have been doing great work knocking those missiles and drones down, with a more than 90 percent kill rate, but some are getting through; now a new issue is arising, that being that the interceptors are expensive, but drones are cheap.

More than 90% of Iranian projectiles have been intercepted during the war, according to a report obtained by Fox News Digital from the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), thanks to a layered regional air defense system built during years of coordination.
But beneath that success lies a widening imbalance that could shape the next phase of the conflict.
The report highlights a critical trend: Iran’s least expensive weapons are proving the most disruptive and are draining costly U.S. and Israeli interceptors.

This was no doubt part of Iran's plan for countering any such attack. Fortunately, our side anticipated it too:

A surge of U.S. assets before the war, including Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), batteries, Patriot systems, two carrier strike groups and roughly 200 fighter aircraft, helped absorb Iran’s opening salvos and maintain high interception rates, according to JINSA's report.
But Ari Cicurel, associate director of foreign policy at JINSA and author of the report, said focusing only on interception percentages misses the bigger picture.
"Overall high missile and drone interception rates have been important but only tell part of the story," Cicurel told Fox News Digital. "Iran came into this war with a deliberate plan to dismantle the architecture that makes those intercepts possible. It has struck energy infrastructure to upset markets and used cluster munitions to achieve higher hit rates."

Our forces are responding by going after launchers, which we did in 1991 as well. But the drones Iran is using can be launched from a pickup truck, which can then essentially disappear. It's a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. Yes, Iran has been targeting energy infrastructure, yes, they have been using cluster munitions, including in civilian areas. But the overwhelming logistic advantage remains with the allies. We can switch tactics, we can switch to different weapon systems, such as deploying the A-10 Warthog attack planes. Iran cannot. Every weapon they shoot is one less they have to shoot. Their logistical chain is collapsing, and the regime is coming apart.

This is the time to finish the job.

UAE Minister's Brilliant Response to Iran's Attacks - They Aren't Going to Like This

Sometimes the only way out is through. The most effective way to deal with this drone threat is to win the war. The most effective way to win the war is to weaken the regime, to continue to remove leaders, to the point where the Iranian people can deal with the regime and set up a new government. We can support them, but they have to do the job.

One of the famous "Murphy's Laws of Combat" states, "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." That certainly holds true here. While this cost imbalance is a concern, the overwhelming advantage still lies with the United States, Israel, and the Gulf State allies who are beginning to step up.

The theocratic regime is on the edge of a cliff. Let's give them a shove.

Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.

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