Is it true Iran has some very good war equipment and could do some measure of damage to American interests?

Answer 1

Cybeg sure has that wrong, the small arms Ronald Reagan and Donald Rumsfeld sold Iran consist of American F-14 Navy Tom Cats with introcet missiles. They also supplied them with stockpiles of RPG's and Claymore mines that keep showing up against our troops right now. I will post up some links about the Iranian Air Force and some others over the Iran Contra deal.

Answer 2

Iran has some very good equipment, but not up to the level of US equipment.

Most of the air assests we sold them, are no longer operational. Of the F-14s we sold them, only 10 are thought to be operational, do to cannibalization for spare parts. These planes use the Phoenix missile, and it's associated control systems, a very long range missile which travels at over 3000 mph and is difficult to defend against since it attacks from above. Two mitigating factors to its use are that it doesn't work very well if the target is invisible to radar, and the solid propellant tends to develop cracks over time, turning the missile into a bomb - when a crack in the propellent is reached, the missle blows up.

They have an extensive anti-aircraft system, but again, their effectiveness against stealth technology is very much in doubt.

They have a very large army, but I don't envision the US putting troops on the ground in any conflict with Iran.

The probable scenario, given the history of the first and second Gulf wars, is an initial cruise missile attack against AA assets and airfields, naval facilities, and Naval assets in the Gulf, as well as shore based anti-ship missiles.

The followup would be precision stealth and cruise missile strikes on the Nuclear facilities. Some of these are buried, so bunker busters may be employed.

Since Iran's nuclear facilities are deeply buried, all of this may not be enough. Attacks on the national command authority might be attempted, but it's pretty hard to pin down the whereabouts of one person at any particular time. I think we've found that out.

So, whatever the state of their military, It's unlikely we can do much about terminationg their nuclear program

Answer 3

Iran has some good technology acquired from Russia. This includes some very good missile technology (anti aircraft, anti ship, and ballistic). The Iranians have responded to long periods of isolation and sanctions by developing their very own technology. They have developed several aircraft which may be used as fighters or fighter bombers and we simply don't know how good they are. If we look at the scientific level of Iran we can see that they have leading scientists in many different areas.

Answer 4

Iran has some pretty good small arms stuff that the United States sold to them during Iran-Contra days but they pose no real threat to American military might. This is kind of like the question before Gulf War One about Saddam's vaunted Republican Guard. They turned tail and ran only to get spanked in Gulf War Two.

Answer 5

They have the same Soviet equipment Saddam had,which isn't on the same level as ours but still dangerous.
Their "BIG THING" is the human wave attack,just keep coming until you run out of ammo and swarm over you.
Saddam defeated this by issuing more ammo.