What sort of ranged weapons are used to attack a target 15-25 miles away, when precision is important? How capable are the Iranians of such attacks?
I trust the subject is complicated, since oil infrastructure will have varying value. Saddam Hussein attacked it during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, but it was rebuilt.
How valuable is the oil infrastructure on Kharg Island? It’s a deep port oil depot, not a refinery. (So the GD answer to the OP may be, “Who cares?” Let’s have a dozen + replies before we entertain this objection.)
Hijack! The island is home to a number archeological sites, including the oldest Christian ruins in Iran. Kharg Island - Wikipedia
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I invite others to start a thread in GD or PE on Iranian War strategy.
First, if occupying forces camp in the midst of sensitive infrastructure, it would be impossible to attack them without some collateral damage. Even the US’s super-precision low-power weapons can’t do less damage than knocking down a wall or blowing out a building, and pipes and pumps are fragile.
If the forces are away from anything that the attackers would rather avoid damaging, this type of accuracy and range doesn’t exceed modern artillery and drone systems. Ballistic missiles seem like a mixed bag, with accuracy rating between 1/2 kilometer and 10 meters depending on the specific missile.
Air strikes can be kinda accurate, but the entire US Air Force and US Navy Aviation is salivating at the chance to get some aerial victories against manned aircraft.
I would expect that any US deployment would include anti-air, anti-missile, and anti-drone defenses.
If they can ht the US embassy or a airbase in the Gulf States, or Tel Aviv from Iran, I assume they can hit a specific spot on Kharg Island, accurate enough to take out a landing point or a command post if given good satellite intelligence (How would that happen?). Worst case, the Island ships what- 90% of their oil? - I assume it’s big enough that a few damaged parts would not destroy their future economy, while a foreign takeover would be worse.
More likely, as they’ve done for this whole war, it’s tit-for-tat. Israel hit their water purification plant, they hit one across the Gulf - and the Gulf states are a lot more vulnerable to water plant attacks. Israel or US hit one of their oil facilities, they hit one or two across the gulf.
I’m not sure exactly how accurate their missiles are, we haven’t seen a lot of reports of damage from the Gulf States, or especially from Israel. Israel has made it a point to censor any and all reports of damage - national security, of course - so none in the mass media and most reports online on social media appear to be fake, but there’s not a lot of reports of real targeted damage. The Gulf States have also pressured the ex-pat social media types to not post attacks or damage to avoid panic or hurting their image.