Vehemently discounting the latest national intelligence estimates that Iran won’t develop nuclear weapons for 10 years, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) says, “The Israelis count it as one, and I’d say two.” Speaking at AFA’s Air & Space Conference last week, Weldon, who is chairman of the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, also said the Pentagon should stop chasing meaningless metrics. Iran is working on ever-longer-range missiles, but could easily put a shorter range Shahab on a cargo ship laying off the East coast today. Setting off a low-yield nuke high in the atmosphere would cause an electromagnetic pulse that would bring the US “to its knees,” he charged. The defense establishment needs to pay more attention to the ways Iran could use ad-hoc, improvised ways to cause America big problems, Weldon said. “They’re not stupid,” he said. “They read.”
The Air Force wants more companies able to produce its new, multi-use, anti-radar missile that one expert says will prove vital in any future peer conflict and would be in high demand for the war in Iran if stocks were available now.