War with Iran?

[hollodero]

(06-21-2019, 06:19 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: That SAM quote might be reasonable for a shoulder fired missile with a range of 2 to 3 miles. But the types of SAM's that you need to hit a Global Hawk 24 or more miles from your launcher are substantially more expensive, particularly when you have to include the costs of radar tracking stations and command centers. The market cost for a Russian S-400 missile system with 8 launchers, 112 missiles and command and support vehicles is $400,000,000. Your probably looking at around $2 million per missile for the basic missile (9M96E) which would give you about a 40km, or 24 mile, range.

Well the radar stations etc. exist anyway, and the Iranians used a home-grown missile system called Khordad [some number] to shoot down the drone. 50 km range, and it worked. The system even evolved recently. They don't need any outside systems, the production is self-sufficient, including the Sayyad missiles they launch. Also, even if it weren't, I guess some countries would be happy to help Iran out to shoot down more 100 million dollar US toys.

Now I could not find an estimated cost for these Sayyad missiles. Iran has a mass production of those. So probably it won't be just as high. A generous range would probably be 100.000-2 million (though I doubt it's as expensive to produce as it would be to buy a foreign missile). So best case scenario, the US loses that financial battle 55:1. But probably more around 100:1.

I get it's a good deal for drone manufacturers though, and the folks working there. And that sure creates some tax revenue from the tax-funded production. If that's a sustainable economic model seems a bit questionable though.