ClearedHot

Nah - I will compare it to the plan that destroyed their Air Force, their Navy and 90% of their ballistic missile production capability.

The pundits on both site cheery pick to make it look great or horrible, I lean to the horrible side for reasons outlined below. I've read a lot of what Gen Jack Keene has written and said on the matter. For those that support do you really think Iran honored the deal? They are masters of lying and delay. JCPOA had a HUGE loophole that allowed Iran up to 24 days before a site could be inspected. Bottom line for me: Why were the enriching in the first place? They lied about the TBMs as proven by four that were launched at Guam (4,000 Miles). There were the single largest exporter of terror in the world. How many dead injured Americans have they impacted? Posted on other sites here are the key faults of JCPOA. Sunset Clauses: Restrictions on uranium enrichment and other activities begin to expire, allowing Iran to expand to an industrial scale after 2030, merely delaying rather than preventing a nuclear program. No Missile Restrictions: The deal did not address Iran's ballistic missile program, which is capable of delivering nuclear weapons. Regional Aggression: Critics claimed sanctions relief provided Iran with funds that enabled it to expand its network of proxy military forces in the Middle East. Weak Inspection Regime: IAEA inspectors did not have unconditional "anytime, anywhere" access, specifically to military sites, with a potential 24-day waiting period for accessing suspicious sites. Limited Scope: The agreement failed to address Iran's past work on nuclear weapons and didn't cover conventional weapons proliferation. Sanctions Relief: The deal freed up billions in assets, which opponents argued empowered a hostile regime rather than encouraging it to change its regional policy.

Yes - we would have been burdened by what was.

I love how triggered these guys are...thanks for the comedy.

The left will NEVER see a positive thing associated with Trump. Sometime in the early 2030's our Baseops loonies will begin their annual trip to Miami to have a TDS circle jerk in the parking lot of Trump's Presidential library. More Americans died in the liberal mecca of Chicago last weekend than the entire U.S. military since the fight with Iran started...

Core mission all of AFSOC sued to train to in nearly every exercise (Bilat/Multi-lat), prior to OEF/OIF. As we drew down in both the command re-energized this type of training and I am here to tell you this is normal bizness for AFSOC and the SOAR. I will defer to the experts but here is my guess...a combination of factors: The CV-22 is in a state of contraction after years of maintenance issues that culminated in the fatal crash last in 2024. As a result AFSOC made the decision to temporarily mothball 20+ birds and focus efforts on the remaining. The maintenance issues are focused on: 1. The blades (wearing out MUCH fast in Middle East sand) - I believe the time between major maintenance was down to 100 hours instead of the planned 500 hours. 2. Turbine performance decline (again related to Middle East sand) - the find sand was "coaking" on the turbine inlet blades and causing reduced power. Ultimately they changed the FDAC to allow higher operating temps in an attempt to burn the coaking off. (very simplified answer). 3. IR center Body problems (cracks) - perhaps the most vexing problem as the airframe manufacturer pointed at the engine OEM Rolls Royce and the Engine OEM pointed back at Bell. 4. Hard clutch engagements like the one that caused the crash in Japan. In short the clutch engages hard which causes a rapid rise of torque to the opposite engine and can cause REAL issues, ultimately, gearbox failure. As a result of these issues there is a distrust of the platform by some of the Tier 1 teams. Also, while the speed and range profile seem to make sense I wonder if the survivor being up high had an impact. The CV-22 is big and maybe they couldn't land on the high uneven terrain. Hovering a CV-22 that high over the survivor was probably not optimal. The downwash is 10 X a helicopter. We had issues the first few times we did fast rope and ended up having to put large weights at the end of the rope to keep them on the ground. The survivor was wounded and hiding in a crevice in very high terrain, so I am guessing that had an impact. Two things that are not being talked about much: When the MC-130's became stuck they called in "other assets" to help. There is a video from Iran showing one of the other assets. ssstwitter.com_1775434822410.mp4 And, as per American SOF standard, we trolled the Iranians in the LZ...left them a Fuck you present!

What I am told is they landed two MC-130Js with 2 X Little Birds each. Both MC-130Js got their nose wheels stuck in the sand. The little birds launched and one picked up the WSO. At the FARP they tried unsuccessfully to get the MC-130J's "unstuck" so they called in other assets from a supporting agency to pick up everyone. 3 X other smaller platforms came in and picked everyone up. USAF aircraft then bombed the 2 X MC-130J's and 4 x Little birds. We lost a couple of Reapers as well. True team effort.

Not the first time the Iranian desert ate an American C-130. SOF played a front row seat, i wonder if this is going to stoke the fire in the battle to move CSAR to AFSOC.

Godspeed to all in harms way tonight. Lots of reports about the Iranians sending forces to disrupt and they got pummeled.

Well Pete doesn't necessarily follow other laws...

Really surprised they didn't eat some mini-gun in return.

They just can't help themselves...funny and sad at the same time...must be a joy to live with.

13,000 DMPI's hit in 30+ days of combat ops flying many hundreds of sorties per day with two aircraft damage (that we know of), and ONE shot down. China and Russia are likely shocked at the data.