Do we know that though? I think I read that the estimated accuracy of the Shabab missiles (what they likely used) is something like a CEP of 170 meters. CEP = circular error probable, meaning that 50% of warheads are going to hit within a circle of 170 meters around the aiming point.
That’s good enough to hit a large military base, as well as to make sure you miss anything important. Overall it’s decently accurate- on par with most US/Russian ICBMs which fly a lot further, but not as good as the US/Russian IRBMs like Pershing II (30m CEP with radar terminal guidance).
The civilian airliner the Iranians claim crashed due to mechanical problems may have actually been shot down by a missile. I wonder if we will ever find out what type.
Well the head of Iran’s civil aviation has been quoted as saying that it is “scientifically impossible” that the Ukrainian airliner was shot down by a missile. If that’s the story that they stick to I doubt we will ever find out.
I believe the claim and consensus is that it was a mix of Fateh-110 or some variant thereof and Qiam-1, which is basically a souped-up Scud-C. The latter wouldn’t be assumed to be all that accurate, while the former has had widely varying claims to accuracy, from mediocre to great. Basically how accurate Iran’s best missiles are is a guessing game. Iran seems to be constantly working on upgrading them and claiming gnat’s ass accuracy, while a lot of analysts have been skeptical of the more extreme claims.
At this point, I’m guessing nobody is 100% certain just how good they are.
This is too funny. I flounced here long ago, because the moderation here is ((CENSORED)) … you can’t talk about the moderation of this site in this forum/thread outside of the About this message board stuff.
Magiver, your motorcycle, parachute, special forces plan is legendary in some circles. We pass that story around from time to time. You’re a good dude. I’m not making fun of you but that post/plan/thought is memorable in some discussions.
I’d be skeptical that they’d be on par with Western missiles, if only because the international sanctions on them hamstrung their scientific community until relatively recently, and the rest of their aerospace industry seems kind of underdeveloped.
NPR has been covering some of this on their radio program today, thinking some of the evidence is pointing to one of Iran’s surface-to-air missiles.
Trump, today, to justify killing Soleimani said “they were looking to blow up our embassy.” He still won’t provide details to anybody. Let’s hope the evidence is going to better than the"weapons of mass destruction" that was used to justify going into Iraq.
Because the only actual alternative was just surrendering to them, which they thought was an even worse idea. If you think that any of the people plotting to kill Hitler in WW2 after allied bombing started had plans to unconditionally surrender to the Russians and accept their fate, you’ll probably want to support that with some evidence.
‘Yeah, that’s what they were planning. To blow up our embassies. With nukes. Nukes that Obama gave them. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I heard it from Morgan Fairchild. Whom I’ve slept with.’
Why would anyone believe anything this administration puts out? The president has lied over 15,000 times, the VP spews lies, the attorney general lies, the press secretaries lie (when they deign to talk to the press), they lie about the weather, conversations with the boy scouts, everything.
Nothing they say is remotely believable. I can’t believe we’re in a potentially explosive situation with an administration with zero, I mean zero, credibility.
I’ll also note that I wasn’t giving a recommendation, I was explaining what thinking they may have gone through before deciding to start lobbing missiles at our bases.
Uncharacteristically for the Times, they’re connecting the dots that when we see a fast-moving object that collides with an airplane causing it to explode, it’s always a surface-to-air missile. Maggie Haberman must have had the day off.
It’s kind of curious that Iran’s response/consequences so far has been killing more of their own civilians (the funeral stampede and the downed airliner)
