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Old 19th June 2025 | 21:40
  #2061 (permalink)  
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From: Peripatetic
Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani has announced that the Japan Air Self-Defense Force will be deploying two C-2 military transport aircrafts to Djibouti in Eastern Africa, to organize and stage for the evacuation of roughly 1,000 Japanese nationals that are currently trapped in Israel, as well as around 280 that are trapped in Iran.
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Old 19th June 2025 | 21:42
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From: Peripatetic
VideoThe Imperial Air Force Pilots Association of Iran is urging the Artesh (Iranian Military) to defect from the terrorist Islamic Republic and join the people

Pilot Colonel Mostafa Babaian conveys their message.
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Old 19th June 2025 | 21:55
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From: London
Originally Posted by RAFEngO74to09
US Fox News Senior White House Correspondent - debunking nonsense in The Guardian Trump caution on Iran strike linked to doubts over ‘bunker buster’ bomb, officials say | Iran | The Guardian

"A White House official tells me the contents of this report are false – that the US military has no doubt about the efficacy of bunker busters in eliminating the site at Fordow, also denying that any options (including tactical nukes) have been taken off the table."
I think the hawks are placing far too much faith in the B2/MOP combo. The facility is a long way inside Iran for a subsonic bomber with a load out like that. Also, what level of precision are we talking about, and would multiple strikes be required? Then there's the issue of bomb damage assessment.
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Old 19th June 2025 | 22:00
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From: Peripatetic
Having flown all the way from the USA the last few miles inside Iran isn’t a factor.

Precision will be pinpoint to within a few inches based on satellite updates shielded from interference from below.

If multiple strikes are required then 20 aircraft are available for multiple repeat missions.

BDA can be performed by each subsequent flight, IAF F-35 post strike recce and/or satellite data.

You’re welcome.
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Old 19th June 2025 | 22:00
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From: Montana
Originally Posted by ORAC
VideoThe Imperial Air Force Pilots Association of Iran is urging the Artesh (Iranian Military) to defect from the terrorist Islamic Republic and join the people

Pilot Colonel Mostafa Babaian conveys their message.
Maybe it explains why the Administration is giving things a bit of time to fester in the growing hope that the Ayatollah gets removed by the long oppressed people of Iran themselves.

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Old 19th June 2025 | 22:17
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From: surfing, watching for sharks
Originally Posted by dead_pan
I think the hawks are placing far too much faith in the B2/MOP combo. The facility is a long way inside Iran for a subsonic bomber with a load out like that. Also, what level of precision are we talking about, and would multiple strikes be required? Then there's the issue of bomb damage assessment.
I watch with great curiosity, a basic understanding of the mission and the weapons available with no basis to judge the outcome. I am curious of your skepticism, do you possess special insights of the challenges and thus doubt of the outcome?
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Old 19th June 2025 | 22:32
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It would be interesting to know what these flights are about.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chi...-what-carrying
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Old 19th June 2025 | 23:09
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From: A better place.
Yet more bone-headed reasoning. Two more weeks. Let's give Iran more time to organise and activate proxies.
I imagine right now there would be one or two handpicked B2 pilots maintaining outward professionalism, while quietly feeling a degree of frustration.
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Old 19th June 2025 | 23:16
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From: 3rd Rock, #29B
Ms Leavitt statement reported by BeeBeeCee:

President Trump will decide within the next 2 weeks whether to join Israel in attacking Iran.
I feel a strange level of affection that is quite alien. Someone somewhere is making a point that is sticking.

Iran has now an opportunity to take action to de-escalate their closure of the Straits of Hormuz, which will otherwise pit a rather large number of countries against them, while determining what is best for the state of Iran and how important being an Islamic state that has a fairly large level of resentment from it's populace.

A historical truth is that the autocratic powerbase when it crumbles takes away a lot of privilege and occasionally the breath of those that have used their power to harm the population, bit of a tiff may ensue.

The merit of religion seems to not favour one over the other, in fact, amongst the lot of them, I think at least the Zen Buddhists eat heartily, and the Catholics get Pizza. Decision, decisions.

When putting off WW-3 by 2-weeks is a win, we are definitely in the "interesting times" phase-space.

Last edited by fdr; 20th June 2025 at 04:42.
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Old 19th June 2025 | 23:21
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From: troposphere
Originally Posted by Hangarless
It would be interesting to know what these flights are about.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chi...-what-carrying
Could just be re-stocking parts for drones or be carrying other armaments.
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Old 19th June 2025 | 23:24
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From: The Gulf Coast
Originally Posted by fdr
... and the Catholics get Pizza. Decision, decisions.
What have the Romans Italians ever done for us? Well answered, in advance.
Originally Posted by fdr
When putting off WW-3 by 2-weeks is a win, we are definitely in the "interesting times" phase-space.
NATO put off WW III for roughly 80 50 years, so a two-week reprieve isn't filling me with gratitude. Am I wrong to feel that way?

Last edited by T28B; 19th June 2025 at 23:55. Reason: math error
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Old 20th June 2025 | 00:28
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From: A better place.
Originally Posted by fdr
Ms Leavitt statement reported by BeeBeeCee:



I feel a strange level of affection that is quite alien. Someone somewhere is making a point that is sticking.

Iran has now an opportunity to take action to de-escalate their closure of the Straits of Hormuz, which will pit a rather large number of countries against them, while determining what is best for the state of Iran and how important being an Islamic state that has a fairly large level of resentment from it's populace.

A historical truth is that the autocratic powerbase when it crumbles takes away a lot of privilege and occasionally the breath of those that have used their power to harm the population, bit of a tiff may ensue.

The merit of religion seems to not favour one over the other, in fact, amongst the lot of them, I think at least the Zen Buddhists eat heartily, and the Catholics get Pizza. Decision, decisions.

When putting off WW-3 by 2-weeks is a win, we are definitely in the "interesting times" phase-space.
We can't have urbane people like yourself feeling affection for the feckless!
Seriously though - this is sounding like the Chinese playbook in the South China sea.
Iran again denies, delays, dissembles, buys time.
To me, absent intelligence and any publicly disclosed hard evidence, noting Netanyahu has been saying they're weeks/months away from breakout for years now - there's one glaring indicator of the regime's true intent, and that's the hundred or so metres of rock and concrete above the Fordow centrifuge halls.
If you're pursuing a non-military nuclear program, then why have you deeply buried it?
Build your facilities on the surface and let the IAEA in - problem solved. You get your peaceful nuclear power and medicine program, the world breathes easy.
Until then, the world has the right to be suspicious. When a regime with the track record of Iran builds such a deeply buried facility, that alone is a trigger to act in my personal opinion.
Oh, so you then say you have a right to a nuclear weapon because the little Satan has them already and you need to potentially be able to defend yourselves ? (yes I know they've been supposedly deemed un-Islamic, but bear with me here)
You don't fear the Jews - you hate them - and there's a big difference.
Yes they're aggressive. Yes they're now arguably genocidal in Gaza - shelling starving people running for food - utterly egregious.
Is their leader a war criminal? Possibly. But common sense tells me I know who I'd rather have the bomb. And I respect the hell out of their fighter pilots and spooks.
Is that a double standard - most likely.
Ten years ago I busted my ankle. As I lay in the bay being prepped for surgery, the anaesthetic technician and I got talking. He was Iranian, shifted to Australia as a student.
I asked him "...are they really pursing the bomb?"
He rolled his eyes, laughed at the naivety of my question and said emphatically "...oh yes, indeed!"
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Old 20th June 2025 | 03:07
  #2073 (permalink)  
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From: surfing, watching for sharks
Originally Posted by tartare
Yet more bone-headed reasoning. Two more weeks. Let's give Iran more time to organise and activate proxies.
I imagine right now there would be one or two handpicked B2 pilots maintaining outward professionalism, while quietly feeling a degree of frustration.
Trump is saying two weeks. The Israelis who have largely brought Iran to its knees are under no such timelime.
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Old 20th June 2025 | 03:23
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From: Mauritius,soon or latter
How big atomic bomb could be? 3, 5, 10 meters long? One , two meters diametar? And wieght? Ton, two,three...?


From.my point of view, Iran, even it could produce something that belong to that class- has no capabilities, neither knowledge- to transport it from production line to target- especially if that target is 1000+km away....


For that they need air supeority over very big portion of airspace- not to mention pilots or artilery capable of hit target.
No case, but Iran will pay huge price to be non coperative and oposition to the rest of the World.
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Old 20th June 2025 | 03:30
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From: aus
Originally Posted by Hangarless
It would be interesting to know what these flights are about.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chi...-what-carrying
I looked at one of cited flights it landed in Khazakstan. Theres even photos of it on the ground. Also lots of GPS jamming around
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Old 20th June 2025 | 04:17
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From: A better place.
Originally Posted by SINGAPURCANAC
How big atomic bomb could be? 3, 5, 10 meters long? One , two meters diametar? And wieght? Ton, two,three...?


From.my point of view, Iran, even it could produce something that belong to that class- has no capabilities, neither knowledge- to transport it from production line to target- especially if that target is 1000+km away....


For that they need air supeority over very big portion of airspace- not to mention pilots or artilery capable of hit target.
No case, but Iran will pay huge price to be non coperative and oposition to the rest of the World.
To the extent she can even be believed or trusted, along with the rest of the administration, Karoline Leavitt just made some very interesting comments.
The US assessment is Iran is at the point where it could relatively quickly field a nuclear weapon. Journalists pressed her on that point - if she meant they'd just enriched uranium to weapons grade, had built a bomb, or had the ability to build a complete weapon.
She repeated the assessment was they could relatively quickly field a weapon.
Iran can clearly build the delivery system - they've been using multiple stage, ex-atmospheric ballistic missiles with accurate guidance systems to hit Israel.
They can clearly enrich Uranium. From my limited knowledge - the trickiest bit is not getting a stationary device to explode (a la The Gadget at the Trinity test).
It's miniaturising that device into an operational warhead, which can be successfully mated to a bus attached to the top of a missile. Said warhead and bus needs to be able to withstand the shock of launch, flight and MaxQ/heat of re-entry (up to Mach 20 and 7,000 degrees Celsius), the re-entry vehicle having ablative coatings, and then reliably compress the pit with extreme precision to generate the x-rays and trigger the secondary fusion device.
If the Iranians have successfully demonstrated this last miniaturisation/ruggedization step - then we're talking a whole different ballgame.
Leavitt seemed to definitively allude that they had - noting again the caveat that she and her fellow travelers are quite happy to lie like flat fish when it suits them - and there is prior form in doing so on weapons of mass destruction.
Simplistic diagram below - which everyone will probably be very familiar with - noting the foam, FOGBANK, which the dear old US forgot the recipe for and had to reverse engineer...


Last edited by tartare; 20th June 2025 at 05:00.
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Old 20th June 2025 | 05:07
  #2077 (permalink)  
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From: 3rd Rock, #29B
Originally Posted by tartare

To me, absent intelligence and any publicly disclosed hard evidence, noting Netanyahu has been saying they're weeks/months away from breakout for years now - there's one glaring indicator of the regime's true intent, and that's the hundred or so metres of rock and concrete above the Fordow centrifuge halls.
If you're pursuing a non-military nuclear program, then why have you deeply buried it?
Build your facilities on the surface and let the IAEA in - problem solved. You get your peaceful nuclear power and medicine program, the world breathes easy.
Until then, the world has the right to be suspicious. When a regime with the track record of Iran builds such a deeply buried facility, that alone is a trigger to act in my personal opinion.
Oh, so you then say you have a right to a nuclear weapon because the little Satan has them already and you need to potentially be able to defend yourselves ? (yes I know they've been supposedly deemed un-Islamic, but bear with me here)
You don't fear the Jews - you hate them - and there's a big difference.
Yes they're aggressive. Yes they're now arguably genocidal in Gaza - shelling starving people running for food - utterly egregious.
Is their leader a war criminal? Possibly. But common sense tells me I know who I'd rather have the bomb. And I respect the hell out of their fighter pilots and spooks.
Is that a double standard - most likely.
Ten years ago I busted my ankle. As I lay in the bay being prepped for surgery, the anaesthetic technician and I got talking. He was Iranian, shifted to Australia as a student.
I asked him "...are they really pursing the bomb?"
He rolled his eyes, laughed at the naivety of my question and said emphatically "...oh yes, indeed!"
Iran as a sovereign state has a legitimate right to self defence one assumes. When their habitual adversaries have TNW's, it seems arbitrary to accept any one country having an arsenal of WMD and then objecting to those that live with some justifiable reservations in the altruism of those that have plonked one or two of these off downtown, and for their acquisition of the same weapon to be unacceptable.

Not in favour of Iran having WMD, not sure that our own teams have are righteous to the extent we also are not reasonably considered an existential threat to Iran etc.

Israel's response to the heinous murder of its citizens has played out as a greek tragedy as they have acted in a manner that is a mirror of that they objected to. There is no honour in what has occurred in Gaza.

Israel should be able to live in peace, however that would be a more likely proposition if they stopped their disenfranchisement of the Palestinians. Iran's support of what we call terrorist organisations is not helpful to peace, but then shooting your own children in the head for not wearing a cloth that was a man made invention 1400 years ago, used to subjugate the females of the population in part (there are some historical justifications that may have been reasonable in 760 AD, they look a little tired today).

The Arab nations who could readily assimilate the Palestinians into their empty lands, if not their society, don't.

Why should there be any intelligent life in the universe, given there is precious little intelligence on this damned rock.


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Old 20th June 2025 | 05:21
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Recently a comment somewhere among all these threads caught my eye, that an official who went to observe the Fordow facility said it was 'about half a mile underground'.

We see the tunnel entrances in the satellite shot, so presumably a bomb (or multiple several bombs) would need to cover a circle 100 meters down and three quarters of a mile in radius from there, to be sure.
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Old 20th June 2025 | 05:49
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From: troposphere
Originally Posted by jolihokistix
Recently a comment somewhere among all these threads caught my eye, that an official who went to observe the Fordow facility said it was 'about half a mile underground'.

We see the tunnel entrances in the satellite shot, so presumably a bomb (or multiple several bombs) would need to cover a circle 100 meters down and three quarters of a mile in radius from there, to be sure.
Hi jolihokistix it was the head of the IAEA , Rafael Grossi, who claimed that he had been to sites in Iran 'many times'
(he did not identify which sites) and that you went down a spiral tunnel until you were 'half a mile underground'.

Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told The Financial Times that, “The most sensitive things are half a mile underground (about 800 meter) — I have been there many times,” adding, “To get there you take a spiral tunnel down, down, down.”
https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/h...ns-iaea-chief/
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Old 20th June 2025 | 06:09
  #2080 (permalink)  
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From: London
Originally Posted by West Coast
I watch with great curiosity, a basic understanding of the mission and the weapons available with no basis to judge the outcome. I am curious of your skepticism, do you possess special insights of the challenges and thus doubt of the outcome?
Well I've seen Top Gun Maverick so I do appreciate the challenge. Just sceptical of all those talking heads who think the B2 will just rock up and finish the job.
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