NuclearID
Guest
Israel Rigged Centrifuge Technology With Explosives, Iran Alleges:
A senior American official tells me: "A deal has been reached to release hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza."
As the Biden administration nears its final days, military and government officials are starting to speak more openly about the scope of the fighting that has occurred against Yemen's Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, the evolving tactics of the last 15 months, and the issues with U.S. production that will need to be addressed by the incoming Trump administration.
Speaking at a Navy conference in Arlington, Virginia, the commander of the service's surface forces, Vice Adm. Brendan McLane, told a crowd of mostly Navy officers who gathered for a panel on the lessons of the Red Sea conflict that Navy ships fired 220 missiles and 160 5-inch shells over the course of 380 separate engagements.
Those figures -- a rare moment of transparency from the Navy -- suggest that the service has been relying on missiles to deal with the threat of drones and other missiles from the Houthis. Yet a top U.S. official and Navy officers say that this is no longer the case.
One key driver for that seems to be a dual concern over the cost of the missiles in question, as well as the military's ability to replenish its supplies should a fight with China arrive.
According to McLane, the Navy fired 120 SM-2 missiles, 80 SM-6 missiles, and 20 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles and SM-3 missiles.
The SM-2 missiles alone run around $2 million a piece while the newer SM-6 missiles, capable of knocking out other ballistic missiles in flight, are double at around $4 million each. The SM-3 missile, capable of striking targets in space, ranges in cost from $9 million to nearly $28 million a piece.
These figures also don't include the number of Tomahawk cruise missiles that have been used to strike Houthi locations on land in Yemen.
While a precise cost total for munitions expended over the last 15 months, even with the new information, is hard to arrive at, it's clear that the Navy has expended well over $500 million just in the cost of missiles.
Meanwhile, the Houthis "can rapidly create things that are much simpler than what the United States produces," Sullivan said. "They're not as good, but are certainly good enough to have significant battlefield effect."
As a result, Sullivan conceded that using missiles to down relatively inexpensive drones is "just a terrible equation for us, obviously" but said that the "equation is more realistic" when they are used against some of the more advanced Houthi missiles.
A CIA employee accused of leaking classified documents about Israel’s plans to strike Iran pleaded guilty on Friday to criminal charges that he willfully retained and transmitted national defense information, the US Department of Justice said.
In pleading guilty, Asif William Rahman, who worked at the US intelligence agency since 2016, acknowledged that he illegally downloaded, printed and distributed classified information on multiple occasions, including several in 2024.
In the spring of 2024, he printed five documents that were labeled as secret and top secret from his work computer and took them home, court records in the case said. He then reproduced and altered them and shared them with people who were not legally entitled to receive them. To hide his conduct, Rahman deleted his activity from his electronic devices, brought the records back to work and had them shredded.
A second time, in the autumn of 2024, the court filings said he printed another 10 documents with a top-secret classification, took them home, and shared them with others.
Those documents, which entailed plans by Israel to strike Iran, later appeared online after a pro-Iranian Telegram account called “Middle East Spectator” published them. The strikes on Iranian military sites came in response to the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile barrage on Israel on October 1.
CIA employee pleads guilty to leaking classified intel on Israel’s plans to strike Iran
An Israeli Air Force fighter jet that took part in strikes in Iran on early October 26, 2024, in an image cleared for publication the following day. (Israel Defense Forces)
The documents, attributed to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, noted that Israel was moving military assets in place to conduct its military strike, based on satellite imagery from October 15-16.
They were shareable within the “Five Eyes,” an intelligence alliance comprised of the US, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
The case was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Rahman, 34, is from Vienna, Virginia, and was arrested in Cambodia, according to court records. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 15.
Both?What, they're afraid of Trump attacking Iran, or giving the green light to Israel to do so?
Or they're worried about Biden conducting an attack in the next 24 hours?
Incoming Trump administration may "go as far as war" with Iran, experts say:What, they're afraid of Trump attacking Iran, or giving the green light to Israel to do so?
Or they're worried about Biden conducting an attack in the next 24 hours?
Original SourceFinancial Times: Two ships loaded with rocket fuel sail from China to Iran.
@DEFCON Warning System @RiffRaff
@Irag8er @Torch
