Garrison Davis

Now we have too.

Hudson Institute senior fellow Khan Khosropoglu said,

published an analysis that made this same basic argument.

Quote, "'A strike profile extending into the Indian Ocean demonstrates not merely extended range, but Iran's deliberate abandonment of strategic ambiguity.

Iran is no longer signaling restraint.

It is signaling reach and doing so under live warfighting conditions.'"

It also more subtly signaled something else.

U.S.

planners didn't know as much as they thought they did about Iran's capabilities.

This has been evident since the war began.

Despite Trump's claims to have totally annihilated Iran's offensive capability, on March 27th, a combined missile and drone attack hit Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, injuring more than 10 U.S.

soldiers, two seriously, and damaging several aircraft.

One of these, which we have pictures of, was an E-3 AWACS, aka the planes with those huge radar dishes on top.

And at least one AWACS was destroyed.

The Air Force only has 16 of these, and only about half are mission-capable at any given time.

The Army also maintains a fleet of E-3s.

I found an article in Air and Space Forces Magazine by Chris Gordon and Stephen Lossie, who interviewed Heather Penny.

She's a former F-16 pilot and current director of the Air Force Academy's Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Penny said, "...the loss of this E-3 is incredibly problematic, given how crucial these battle managers are to everything from airspace deconfliction, aircraft deconfliction, targeting, and providing other lethal effects that the entire force needs for the battle space."

E3s provide an irreplaceable service on the battlefield.