Can someone explain to me why a hypersonic missile hitting a target is worse than a standard ballistic missile or even a "dumb" bomb? I mean, if an explosive ordinance hits, does it matter how fast it traveled to its target.

I ask because I've heard that is a big fear.

That makes perfect sense. However, the media has been acting like it would be an escalation and I couldn't figure why.

Ramdiesel said:

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MagnumLoad said:

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bonfarr said:

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Too close for landing. And too level for landing in hostile territory.

Those are special forces aircraft flying below radar into Iran. If they are gonna drop ammo pallets for Kurdish units or if they will land to insert special forces we can't know. https://t.co/rnfm3PBnIX

— Thomas C. Theiner (@noclador) March 5, 2026

What do yall think is going on here? Air drop of arms for the Kurds?

What will the IRGC send to engage the Kurdish fighters? Will they send armor that we destroy quickly?

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If the irgc mass men and armor, they will be destroyed quickly. The hanger ons will conduct gorilla warfare. Arming the Iranian people is the way that must be defeated imo.

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That's going to be the tough part, after the bulk of the US and Israeli naval and air forces leave, the Iranians/ forces on the ground will have to deal with the remnants of IRGC running around commiting terrorist acts, bombing buildings/ sniping from rooftops, etc... Then the US and Israel will be getting the blame in the media for not sending their own groundtroops in if Iranians and others can't quickly deal with the terrorist problems.

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If provided the means, I think the Iranian people will deal with them swiftly, and it won't be pretty.

Who is running Iran and making the calls on where to hit?

Which of the 92 million are those? Did all the Islamists that supported this regime just disappear?

Abu Dhabi is getting pounded right now, with multiple drones hitting Yas Island, the extremely high end suburban area where expats live.

I think the USA is going to find itself without allies very soon. I'm a very very minor liason for US trade in the Emirates, but I know some pretty big businessmen and you will start hearing rumblings from some of the non-royal industry leaders about bargaining with Iran to stop the strikes.

AgBQ-00 said:

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I would think having a pre-revolution Iran would lead to a much better business environment in the ME. Surely they can see that is a good thing. Perhaps the Abraham Accords have made them more receptive to weather some pain to get to more stability. Hope that is the case

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Yeah I think its more likely this strengthens area resolve. They are screaming to the world they are in no place to be in charge a fireworks stand much less a nuclear arsenal.

I don't know much about this but it Seems like their ability to make these strikes will disappear pretty quickly .

from what I have heard, the major ports to the West of the Strait are planning on being exposed to attack for 3 months or more with limited traffic through Hormuz.

Everything will be relocated to Salalah/Sohar or Jeddah

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Who are they going to call? There is no organized government of "Iran" at the moment, just a bunch of dead Mullah's and a few waiting to get blown up.

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This is an oversimplification.

The IRGC has nearly 120,000 members and Iranian active duty soldiers add another 600,000 on top of that. The parliament has 290 members and their is a whole network of bonyads, or charitable trusts, that are described as " a vast parastatal network of enterprises, business networks and economic assets that have come to control the 'commanding heights' of the country's economy.

Good read on the subject.

https://www.clingendael.org/publication/beyond-irgc-rise-irans-military-bonyad-complex

There are tens of thousands of senior folks around the country with a lot of money and weapons and a lot to lose from real regime change. The senior most of these folks I am sure are on speed dial with most Gulf Leaders despite ongoing tensions.

AgsMnn said:

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Who is running Iran and making the calls on where to hit?

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They have no C&C system in place. Ever since the head was cut off the snake they have given localized control to make decisions. I think the report said there are like 32 districts in Iran each with some type of Governor and they were ordered to keep things going in their district. I don't think the new Ayotollah has much control authority right now.

AgBQ-00 said:

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because they are morons. see the every gun ever is an AR or AK meme for reference

ETA: the "escalation" would be Iran using newer tech. But there is some speculation that the performance of their "hypersonics" is nothing more than normal typical ballistic speeds achieved on terminal phase. (source on that is Habitual Linecrosser on YouTube. He is a recently retired Air Defense Artillery (patriot system) guy)

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HLC's informative videos are pretty cool. His satire vids are entertaining too. IIRC he tends to make note that hypersonic is speeds of mach 5 or greater which ICBM's and probably medium/inermediate range ballistic missiles exceed easily. The space shuttles also did those kind of speeds on reentry.

My take away from watching the hypersonic hysteria is that it's built on the glide vehicles performing the way they're said to, unpredictable flight path versus a ballistic missile's. So if the glide vehicles actually do perform, to assure a kill you're probably looking at needing to hit them in the boost phase.

Windy City Ag said:

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Who are they going to call? There is no organized government of "Iran" at the moment, just a bunch of dead Mullah's and a few waiting to get blown up.

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This is an oversimplification.

The IRGC has nearly 120,000 members and Iranian active duty soldiers add another 600,000 on top of that. The parliament has 290 members and their is a whole network of bonyads, or charitable trusts, that are described as " a vast parastatal network of enterprises, business networks and economic assets that have come to control the 'commanding heights' of the country's economy.

Good read on the subject.

https://www.clingendael.org/publication/beyond-irgc-rise-irans-military-bonyad-complex

There are tens of thousands of senior folks around the country with a lot of money and weapons and a lot to lose from real regime change. The senior most of these folks I am sure are on speed dial with most Gulf Leaders despite ongoing tensions.

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I appreciate the information and stand corrected!

Severian the Torturer said:

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Abu Dhabi is getting pounded right now, with multiple drones hitting Yas Island, the extremely high end suburban area where expats live.

I think the USA is going to find itself without allies very soon. I'm a very very minor liason for US trade in the Emirates, but I know some pretty big businessmen and you will start hearing rumblings from some of the non-royal industry leaders about bargaining with Iran to stop the strikes.

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The good news (for us) is gulf states like UAE don't really have anything they can negotiate with Iran other than threatening retaliation. We aren't using their bases for strikes, and they can't get us or Israel to stop.

Windy City Ag said:

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Quote:

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Who are they going to call? There is no organized government of "Iran" at the moment, just a bunch of dead Mullah's and a few waiting to get blown up.

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This is an oversimplification.

The IRGC has nearly 120,000 members and Iranian active duty soldiers add another 600,000 on top of that. The parliament has 290 members and their is a whole network of bonyads, or charitable trusts, that are described as " a vast parastatal network of enterprises, business networks and economic assets that have come to control the 'commanding heights' of the country's economy.

Good read on the subject.

https://www.clingendael.org/publication/beyond-irgc-rise-irans-military-bonyad-complex

There are tens of thousands of senior folks around the country with a lot of money and weapons and a lot to lose from real regime change. The senior most of these folks I am sure are on speed dial with most Gulf Leaders despite ongoing tensions.

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That to me sounds like a cluster. If I was a foreign power, I wouldn't trust the word of whatever representative, from whatever segment, of whatever level, of whatever network is claiming they are in charge and speaking with the authority to engage in foreign diplomacy on behalf of the entire nation. A nation which clearly has all the earmarks of facing a civil war to challenge any authority that claims it is currently in charge.

ETA: Also, I think that if there is anyone in charge of anything right now, claiming to be in charge is probably suicidal.

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That to me sounds like a cluster. If I was a foreign power, I wouldn't trust the word of whatever representative, from whatever segment, of whatever level, of whatever network is claiming they are in charge and speaking with the authority to engage in foreign diplomacy on behalf of the entire nation which clearly has all the earmarks of facing a civil war to challenge any authority that claims it is currently in charge.

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Also sounds like a good way to make oneself a Mossad target, as well.

GAC06 said:

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Severian the Torturer said:

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Abu Dhabi is getting pounded right now, with multiple drones hitting Yas Island, the extremely high end suburban area where expats live.

I think the USA is going to find itself without allies very soon. I'm a very very minor liason for US trade in the Emirates, but I know some pretty big businessmen and you will start hearing rumblings from some of the non-royal industry leaders about bargaining with Iran to stop the strikes.

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The good news (for us) is gulf states like UAE don't really have anything they can negotiate with Iran other than threatening retaliation. We aren't using their bases for strikes, and they can't get us or Israel to stop.

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Yes, it sounds like there might be a very vocal "decoupling" from the USA where the UAE tells the USA to leave their waters and territory, so they stop getting attacekd, but nothing else really changes

🚨Report from Iran: Brigadier General Qalibaf, the speaker of the parliament and a former member of the Revolutionary Guard, is now fully in charge of the war.

🚀 There is significant chaos in the chain of command among Iran’s military forces. Many missile and drone launching… pic.twitter.com/k31ZHIQ7kp

— Mehdi Yahyanejad (@mehdiy_fa) March 5, 2026

Helpful to remember that the IRG numbers aren't at the same level of loyalty. They have been the only game in town for 50 years. A lot of those folks never had any viable alternatives and may be looking for a way out.

Obviously several higher ups have turned against the regime and have been cooperating with Mossad.

Hopefully the underlings start seeing the tide turning and drop their allegiance, which is fear based.

I think in the back of a lot of people's minds is some "rogue" element sneaking a small backpack style nuke or putting one on a missile. People do crazy things when they are desperate.

People like him that are blind to the facts can be just as dangerous.

MagnumLoad said:

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Ramdiesel said:

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MagnumLoad said:

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bonfarr said:

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Too close for landing. And too level for landing in hostile territory.

Those are special forces aircraft flying below radar into Iran. If they are gonna drop ammo pallets for Kurdish units or if they will land to insert special forces we can't know. https://t.co/rnfm3PBnIX

— Thomas C. Theiner (@noclador) March 5, 2026

What do yall think is going on here? Air drop of arms for the Kurds?

What will the IRGC send to engage the Kurdish fighters? Will they send armor that we destroy quickly?

---

If the irgc mass men and armor, they will be destroyed quickly. The hanger ons will conduct gorilla warfare. Arming the Iranian people is the way that must be defeated imo.

---

That's going to be the tough part, after the bulk of the US and Israeli naval and air forces leave, the Iranians/ forces on the ground will have to deal with the remnants of IRGC running around commiting terrorist acts, bombing buildings/ sniping from rooftops, etc... Then the US and Israel will be getting the blame in the media for not sending their own groundtroops in if Iranians and others can't quickly deal with the terrorist problems.

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If provided the means, I think the Iranian people will deal with them swiftly, and it won't be pretty.

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I agree, but how do we know who to trust? How do we know who to arm and not to arm? Hopefully the Massod has that level of intelligence and relationships with the locals. This could get messy when they get down to the nitty gritty work of putting in a new leader and securing the country at ground level

Israel says they are starting the next phase of the war and surprises are coming

Footage shows what are likely sub-munitions from an Iranian cluster bomb warhead crashing down in Israel this evening, amid a ballistic missile attack.

The IDF has previously confirmed that Iran has launched ballistic missiles carrying cluster bomb warheads at Israel.

The… pic.twitter.com/2jGQUv7plt

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 5, 2026