US Perspective on the Iran - Israel / US War

Pakistan Space Agency said:
The Americans were willing to risk—and lose—a tremendous amount of equipment in an effort to rescue a single service member. That's what that special unit is designed and trained for.

By comparison, I question how Iran's leadership has protected some of its own senior figures. In my view, if a senior leader can be killed on home soil despite extensive security, it raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the state's security apparatus.

If the United States were ever to establish a permanent military presence inside Iran, I think it would likely devote substantial resources to protecting its personnel, based on how it has protected its forces in past conflicts.

How come Iran hasn't captured any of the US special forces that are reportedly currently doing recon in Iran?
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Yeah, my point is that the US incurred significant losses to recover one pilot in one short covert operation, so the idea they could establish a lasting presence on Iranian soil is not realistic, in my opinion.

Iran's security / intelligence apparatus is terrible, no doubt about that. But Iran is also facing a very powerful enemy who have waged economic war on Iran to incite chaos and regime change for 40+ years. But it's not a total excuse, the counterintelligence agencies have been woefully incompetent.

A small number of independent covert agents can be surprisingly hard to detect. Look at Ukraine assassinating Russian generals in the middle of Moscow, and smuggling in a large number of FPV drones to take out strategic bombers across Russian air bases simultaneously. But an established military presence is a very difficult ball game.
 
RescueRanger said:
View attachment 207489
Sat Image captured July 20th - 1800 Z
USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8) & Arleigh Burke (likely) alongside
USNS Pililaau (T-AKR 304) in lagoon
8x Fighters, 2x Tankers, 1x P-8 on the south ramp ...
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Unless I'm missing something, I don't see any major military buildup there.

Isn't it normal for Diego Garcia to have a small number of ships and aircraft stationed there during peacetime anyway?
 
Pakistan Space Agency said:
Unless I'm missing something, I don't see any major military buildup there.

Isn't it normal for Diego Garcia to have a small number of ships and aircraft stationed there during peacetime anyway?
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Diago Garcia is UK sovereign territory - seeing US naval and aircraft there is a SIGNAL. You will see B1's mobilize towards CENCTOM AOR days.

1784672236149.png
B1 in the air again: Note - the transponder hex is showing 000001 this is normally due to a hex mismatch on military aircraft during operations as you can see on the E-3B sentry above you too.
1784672263921.png
1784672268967.png

This is all indicative of a larger build up as we witnessed at the start of the war.
 
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Persian Gulf said:
Yeah, my point is that the US incurred significant losses to recover one pilot in one short covert operation, so the idea they could establish a lasting presence on Iranian soil is not realistic, in my opinion. ...
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That was a rescue mission, not a planned territorial occupation. The unit's objective in that situation is to recover its personnel as quickly as possible, abandoning or destroying equipment if necessary. The priority is the safety of the personnel, not the equipment.

By contrast, if a military were planning to establish a long-term presence in hostile territory, it would typically seek to reduce threats and secure the operational environment before deploying larger numbers of personnel. That is a fundamentally different type of mission, with different objectives, planning, and force requirements.

The circumstances, risks, and acceptable losses in a short-duration rescue operation are therefore very different from those involved in a sustained military deployment or occupation.

You can compare the 48-hour rescue mission with the 10 days of sustained airstrikes so far.
 
Trump's Promise 3 (TP-3): US military airstrikes on Iran

Date​
No. of Targets​
Military Targets​
Source​
09/06/2026​
Not stated​
-​
26/06/2026​
Not stated​
”Missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites.”
27/06/2026​
10​
”Military surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities, and minelayer capabilities.”
07/07/2026​
80​
”Air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 IRGC small boats.”
08/07/2026​
90​
”Air defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone storage sites, naval capabilities, and military logistics infrastructure.”
11/07/2026​
140​
”Missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, ammunition storage facilities, communication networks, and coastal surveillance locations.”
12/07/2026​
”Dozens"​
"Military air-defense systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats.”
13/07/2026​
Not stated​
”Military targets across Iran including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas.”
14/07/2026​
Not stated​
”Missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, and coastal defense systems.”
15/07/2026​
2 separate waves​
”Coastal defense systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites. | Command centers, air defense sites, missile and drone capabilities, and coastal surveillance facilities.”
16/07/2026​
Not stated​
”Military targets such as coastal surveillance and air defense sites, military logistics infrastructure, and maritime capabilities.”
17/07/2026​
Not stated​
”Surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities.”
18/07/2026​
Not stated​
”Military coastal surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime capabilities, and missile and drone storage sites.”
19/07/2026​
Not stated​
”Military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks.”
20/07/2026​
Not stated​
”Military command centers, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defense systems.”
 
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F-22Raptor said:
51 F-35s, 36 F-15s, and dozens of A-10s deployed to Jordan
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The Iranians have advanced missile technology," said Jordanian Lt. Gen. Qasid Mahmoud, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff for his country's armed forces before he retired. "They're developing techniques and capacities to extend their reach, combining with drones to overwhelm radar defenses."

"The Iranians use simple missiles to distract the radar," Mahmoud, who has studied Iran's military capabilities for years, told CBS News. "They then fire better quality missiles, which change their final target in the last 30 or 40 kilometers."

www.cbsnews.com

Iran is evading U.S. defenses to kill and wound American soldiers — it's not just that "one leaked through"​

A retired Jordanian general tells CBS News Iran is "developing techniques and capacities" to target U.S. forces with increasing lethality.
www.cbsnews.com
www.cbsnews.com
Even the Jordanians are acknowledging something openly that Trump won’t allow pentagon military officials to admit openly at least Iran has upped their techniques since the last few rounds they need far fewer missiles and drones to hit targets square on this isn’t a sign of a weaken Iran but a smarter Iran and I keep saying this but all of these Arab countries are just the testing grounds for the real war Iran is getting ready with its eyes set on the prize(Israel)
I posted this on the Iranian thread but brave to actually put all of those assets in a country that’s having a very hard time countering iranian missiles and drones admitted by a top military official who has insider knowledge



 
Pakistan Space Agency said:
That was a rescue mission, not a planned territorial occupation. The unit's objective in that situation is to recover its personnel as quickly as possible, abandoning or destroying equipment if necessary. The priority is the safety of the personnel, not the equipment.

By contrast, if a military were planning to establish a long-term presence in hostile territory, it would typically seek to reduce threats and secure the operational environment before deploying larger numbers of personnel. That is a fundamentally different type of mission, with different objectives, planning, and force requirements.

The circumstances, risks, and acceptable losses in a short-duration rescue operation are therefore very different from those involved in a sustained military deployment or occupation.

You can compare the 48-hour rescue mission with the 10 days of sustained airstrikes so far.
Click to expand...
Fair points but any land occupation is inherently vulnerable to Iranian drone and missile strikes (even FPV strikes from 10-60km away). We saw this very clearly in Hezbollah's repeated strikes against IDF occupied military bases in small stretches of south Lebanon. Would the US be less vulnerable in occupying such a comparatively vast amount of land in Iran than the Israelis in south Lebanon? I don't think there is compelling evidence for this. Remember Trump also hates Iran for helping the Iraqis resist American occupation and killing 600+ US soldiers there.

And politically such an occupation would be very costly for POTUS given the war is already extremely unpopular and POTUS told his base he would avoid new wars. Air wars enable the US to minimise casualties and that is clearly a political priority for the US.
 
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Tabriz likely hit by US ATACMs or PRSMs
 
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