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.”
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.