U.S. can only confirm about a third of Iran's missile arsenal destroyed, sources say

The Romans' military policy.

We decimated their missile stockpile 3 times over -- in fact we've almost decimated their stockpile 4 times over (just need to get to 34.4% destroyed for that).

“Yo! Yo! Yo! *TRIPLE* decimated Whaaaaaaaat!” Official Pentagon Press Statement /s

Decem = latin for ten.

Yeah, this is more than likely half that number.

> Keep in mind the launchers are over 75% destroyed. Visible* launchers.

"the opposing force" in this war isnt a armed force - its the international economy...

After his first term didn't go the way he wanted, he learned he had to appoint complete sycophants to all his cabinet positions, senior positions, and judgeships.

Grifting? Sure he’s a pro!

Nah, I know some Iranians, some are a little crazy but most just are decent people. Don’t forget they were and are quite nice people just living their lives The other surrounding states don’t like their version of the book. So here we are

The Iranian people are likely the most secular in the Muslim world apart from Albania and the Kurds. That's why operation epic fail was preceded by 40k dead protestors. So no, not comparable with Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a failed nation building project. Iran is a proper nation already, its leadership is just not exactly preferred by many both on the in- and outside.

They've also been funding and therefore learning immensely from asymmetrical warfare in regional conflicts. The government and military structure is designed to operate autonomously. If we have boots on the ground, it's going to be fighting a decentralized, fanatical insurgency that will put Iraq's militias and the Taliban to shame.

No they aren't. Demographics shift show they are increasingly less religious. Only 32% of the population is Muslim. Then out of that group the number drops with practicing Muslims.

This an over the top generalization. Do you know any Iranians? Highly educated- absolutely. Fanatically religious? Not at all. In fact many are essentially secular.

That window closed the moment Iran government started executing people in the streets 2 months ago. If this was about Iranian people, the attack should have been carried back then. Now it's about Israel and maybe Saudis getting what they want.

They are still launching ballistic missiles every day.

no, the stat is that there’s a 90% drop in launch rates. surprise surprise, they don’t need to blow up all the missiles, they can just blow up the stuff that shoots the missiles and you’ve effectively made them worthless.

The missile launchers, not the missiles themselves

When the world is more likely to believe what Iran tells them than the US government you realize how little influence the US now has. Their soft power is near zero. They can only count on their military might and this war could easily expose that.

I used to think the USA were liars in a diabolically proficient sort of way like CIA backed coups and international espionage. Now I just think it's full of incompetent bafoons fat with wealth and greed. It's almost like the paper tiger era of the soviet union.

100% of the weapons we obliterated were obliterated though, so it rounds up.

Not like they won't be making more constantly. You will know when Iran runs out of their stockpile when they go weeks to months without firing any till they built up some more to make a volley.

It's so f****** painful to watch - Iran has all the cards on negotiating as it controls the strait. Trump will never agree to their demands. So the really "smart" people in the administration are going to tell him, "A limited incursion into coastal areas will degrade their ability to control the strait." And then the Shahed drone launches will move just a bit inward, and we'll follow...and then...

They've been attacking their military industry base which will make it harder to rebuild their stock

I’ll win this fight by letting him hit me in the face so many times that he gets tired and can’t fight back anymore.

Yes, clearly “we obliterated 90% of their missile capability” means the US employed the valid military strategy of provoking Iran to launch 30% of their missiles of which about 1/5th hit their targets.  And now shall we also discuss how much of America’s missile inventory has been depleted in Iran’s “valid military strategy.” Oh look: “In the first 16 days, the U.S. used over 6,000 defensive and offensive munitions, according to estimates from the Payne Institute for Public Policy. That includes nearly 46% of ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles and nearly 40% of U.S.-operated THAAD interceptors. The Payne Institute also estimates the U.S. would deplete its stockpiles of those three munitions within a month at that rate.” So the US used 40-46% to get Iran to use 30%. Strategy validated! Trump is giving time for Iran to capitulate because the US doesn’t have the weapons to continue the current strategy. He has his fingers crossed, but is positioning for the next escalation - US troops on the ground invading a country of 93m people… 27% the size of the entire US. 

The press briefing from the CENTCOM general overseeing the operation is the source.

They're really not. They are c****, but they aren't plentiful and they're not easy to make. Iran lacks the capacity to build them at all at the moment.

I'm not sure either that Iran is holding back the big stuff. But te comparison with Russia is not the right one, because Russia did commit his best troops believing they were going to win easily (exactly what the US do when they go in). Iran is the underdog here. And a valid strategy is holding back the good stuff to deplete AA defenses. It's been a couple of years we all know the USA and his allies have issues with stocks. So if we know, Iran who's preparing for exactly what's happening, may have been prepared for the rodeo.

> we can track launches, and those have fallen off precipitously. True but all numbers aren't consistent. If they intercept 90% and they get 2 hits / day, it means Iran is able to send 20/day, and if they do that for 10 days, it means they still had 200 missiles left. I guess they're probably intercepting ~50% of iranian missiles and Iran probably still has hundreds of missiles left.

Those generally only work against stationary targets and are fairly easy to shoot down. There are videos of Ukrainians taking them down with machine guns.