Iran, wary of wider war, urges its proxies to avoid provoking US

[iluvatar5150]

Can they do that underwater, too?

Yes.

Torpedo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[RDKirk]

Iran, eager to disrupt U.S. and Israeli interests in the Middle East but wary of provoking a direct confrontation, is privately urging Hezbollah and other armed groups to exercise restraint against U.S. forces, according to officials in the region.



One Iranian-backed group has given no indication of standing down. The Houthis in Yemen have disrupted global trade by harassing commercial shipping through the Red Sea

As I said earlier, the US has the reconnaissance capability to find them and the offensive capability to strike them wherever they run. Since they started this more general assault on shipping, the US should have always been giving them no moment of rest. This is the one way I respected Reagan. He'd say, "Do what's necessary to make them stop. Brief me when you're done."

Margaret Thatcher (Reagan's ideological twin sister) had a similar philosophy in dealing with the military. During the short Falkland Islands war, after Argentina surprisingly sank the HMS Sheffield, reporters were badgering her for a response. She answered, "I sent our commander to the Falklands to prosecute this war. When he returns, he will give me his report. Until then, I have nothing to say to you."

 

[Whyayeman]

This is from the original post:

When U.S. forces launched strikes this month on Iranian-backed groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, Tehran publicly warned that its military was ready to respond to any threat. But in private, senior leaders are urging caution, according to Lebanese and Iraqi officials who were briefed on the talks. They spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive conversations. Washington Post​

Cynical stuff from the Ayatollah. He blows hard in public but quietly tones down the rhetoric for the useful idiots he arms.

 

[The Barbarian]

I was surprised to learn (about a year ago) that TOW missiles were wire guided.

Interestngly, the wire was just long enough to cover the distance between towns in the Fulda Gap in W. Germany. German reservists in each village had TOW missles. It was a major concern for the Red Army, in the event of a general war in Europe. The Fulda Gap was the one spot in Germany that had "tank friendly" terrain for a massive armor attack.

There's a good description of the way these missiles would have worked in The Third World War by Sir John Hackett.

 

[7thKeeper]

What? Really? Do they trail a wire behind them when flying to their destination, all the way back to the launch site?

Yes. TOWs have a long wire. Maybe I'm just enough of a military nerd that none of this is new to me.

 

[Nithavela]

Yes. TOWs have a long wire. Maybe I'm just enough of a military nerd that none of this is new to me.

I have to admit that the idea of a missile streaking a wire several kilometers long behind it hadn't occured to me. It still seems a bit unreal. What happens to that wire after the missile hits? Do they wind it back up? Is it just lying around?

 

[RDKirk]

What? Really? Do they trail a wire behind them when flying to their destination, all the way back to the launch site?

Yep.

 

[7thKeeper]

I have to admit that the idea of a missile streaking a wire several kilometers long behind it hadn't occured to me. It still seems a bit unreal. What happens to that wire after the missile hits? Do they wind it back up? Is it just lying around?

I believe it's generally just left there. If the firing platform is multi use, it's disconnected from that as well.

 

[RDKirk]

I have to admit that the idea of a missile streaking a wire several kilometers long behind it hadn't occured to me. It still seems a bit unreal. What happens to that wire after the missile hits? Do they wind it back up? Is it just lying around?

It's just left there. I wonder if civilians have been scarfing it up after exercises.

 

[Nithavela]

It's just left there. I wonder if civilians have been scarfing it up after exercises.

The forbidden spagetti.

 

[Whyayeman]

I understood that battlefield guided weapons used to have wires to control them. Such technology is not feasible for long range rockets. Wires have been superseded.

The types we hear about in use in Ukraine, are radio-controlled. Even the IRA learned to use mobile phone technology for detonating their bombs.

 

[iluvatar5150]

It's just left there. I wonder if civilians have been scarfing it up after exercises.

Something I didn’t see when I looked last time - how does the operator see where it’s going? Does it have a camera?

 

[RDKirk]

Something I didn’t see when I looked last time - how does the operator see where it’s going? Does it have a camera?

Radar tracking.

 

[Whyayeman]

Something I didn’t see when I looked last time - how does the operator see where it’s going? Does it have a camera?

It would not be difficult or expensive to install. Mobile phones have cameras.

Cruise missiles , which have been around for decades, used radar to scan the terrain and referred to on-board maps. These days they probably just have a version of satellite navigation similar to cars. Again, familiar and cheap technology.

 

[7thKeeper]

Something I didn’t see when I looked last time - how does the operator see where it’s going? Does it have a camera?

There's a video feed from the munition to the operator so they can guide it. If you want to look up Taistelukenttä 2020 (Battlefield 2020) on the official Finnish Defense Force YouTube channel, it's a short video/movie about how modern conflict might start and look like. There's a part where a hovercraft is destroyed by a coastal Jaeger group using a guided missile and it shows the video feedback in it for a few seconds.

 

[RDKirk]

If it is a TOW, it is wire guided. That's what the W stands for. TOW are designed to be man-transportable, something a squad can use and carry, "shoot and scoot." And relatively inexpensive. And also relatively short-ranged (too short to acquire satellite guidance). That's why they don't have the internal smarts of a cruise missile.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Radar tracking.

It would not be difficult or expensive to install. Mobile phones have cameras.

Cruise missiles , which have been around for decades, used radar to scan the terrain and referred to on-board maps. These days they probably just have a version of satellite navigation similar to cars. Again, familiar and cheap technology.

My question was less about the cost and more about the responsiveness. The missiles fly fast, low to the ground, and for a fairly short travel time. That’s not a lot of time for the operator to steer it.

Reading a bit more, it seems that the operator’s optics are fed into the guidance system, similar to how you’d paint a target with IR.