Speaker A
What's that shirt all about? I know we usually do this at the end of the show, but what's that shirt?
Discussion on Montana-themed Navy ships, LCS utility, Marine deployments to Iran, and US military strategic updates.
Key Takeaways
- USS Billings and USS Montana represent Montana in the Navy with unique cultural ties.
- LCS ships have faced criticism for limited combat effectiveness but found niche roles like drug interdiction.
- US military is increasing Marine presence in the Persian Gulf despite public statements against ground combat deployment.
- Diplomatic efforts are ongoing to stabilize oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz amid Iran tensions.
- Military procurement and deployment decisions often involve complex trade-offs and political considerations.
Summary
- Hosts discuss the Great Falls Voyagers baseball team and Montana-themed Navy ships USS Billings and USS Montana.
- The USS Billings LCS is described as a modular ship with mixed utility, mainly used for drug interdiction off South America.
- The LCS program is criticized as ineffective and disliked by sailors, with comparisons to military procurement challenges.
- One host shares personal Marine Corps experience, noting limited ship deployments and land-based operations in Afghanistan.
- Discussion includes the cultural elements aboard the USS Billings, such as home state memorabilia and dual crews themed after Montana universities.
- The podcast introduces the main topic: ongoing Iran conflict and US military posture in the region.
- Recent developments include potential easing of US combat operations in Iran and diplomatic efforts to secure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
- Despite 'no boots on the ground' messaging, two Marine Expeditionary Units totaling about 5,000 Marines are being deployed to the Persian Gulf with full combat and logistical support.
- The podcast hosts highlight the complexity and mixed signals regarding US military engagement in Iran.
- Additional context includes the host attending a USA Global Force conference focused on Army acquisitions.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
It's the Great Falls Voyagers. It's the local minor league team for Great Falls, Montana.
Speaker A
The Great Falls Voyagers. Yeah. And you're wearing a USS Billings hat. I mean, you are— I pulled out one and I was like, man, we should go full Montana today. It feels like this is full Montana. I appreciate that.
Speaker A
Um, and the Billings has a special place in my heart, even though it's an LCS, which is, as far as we could tell, a useless ship. Uh, that's only good for sitting off the coast of South America, but it
Speaker A
was sponsored by Charlotte Tester. We can also— we can also sell those to other countries, the LCS fleet.
Speaker A
I hope we don't sell the Billings. I like that there's Billings out there. I like that it was sponsored by Charlotte.
Speaker A
Uh, it's got a whole bunch of like Montana accoutrement inside the ship. Really? Like what? Have you been on the ship?
Speaker A
You've been on it? It's got pictures of the farm and Charlotte like welded her name into it, and they have all these little like trinkets and things they donate. Every ship has this like altar of home state or home station stuff.
Speaker A
Um, interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah. So, they have like a— you every ship has two crews essentially.
Speaker A
Yeah. Um, and they're themed after UM and MSU. It's, you know, the Cats and the Grizz crews. It's all that stuff.
Speaker A
It's cool. My gosh, that's amazing. So, I'm a Marine, um, for those in the audience who didn't know. And I'm one of those Marines who did all my work in the desert, in the jungles, and was never basically on a ship. Um, although that
Speaker A
is the classic deployment mode for Marines. The Marine Expeditionary Unit as part of an amphibious ready group. And I did deploy, I think, at the tail end of a Marine um expeditionary brigade, a MEB, at the uh front end of
Speaker A
my first deployment to Afghanistan. But that was entirely land-based. It wasn't even— there was no ship involved with that at all.
Speaker A
The only ships I've ever been on were as a Senate staffer, and it was the Billings and the Montana. It's just the two themed ships for our state. Did you make the captain of the ship who's a Navy probably O6 on an LCS? It's
Speaker A
probably Navy O6 probably. Yeah, I think so. I've got a coin from him somewhere. The one that was captain.
Speaker A
Did you make him stand at attention and call you sir? Did you do that?
Speaker A
The senator was with me along with the future under secretary of the Navy. This is what I'm talking about though.
Speaker A
No, I was flitting around the background meeting the chiefs, shaking hands, looking for ripets. Like I was hanging out.
Speaker A
That's right. It's the bestie trip where I'm not the important one. I'm just like, "What does this dude do?" Did you make it?
Speaker A
Did you make it into the chief's mess, which is like holy ground, right, for the chief? You did not. Okay. They— Yeah, they were showing they were trying to show the senator useful stuff and I was like, "This is
Speaker A
real light on useful stuff here. What does the ship do?" All right. Well, it was like not even— I mean, he was chair of SACD at that point and not even nine months later like we're getting rid of those ships. I'm
Speaker A
like, it's his wife. He must have been his wife sponsor. He must have been part of that decision process, right? He knew what he was doing.
Speaker A
He was very— Yeah. If John Tester had wanted really badly to defend the LCS's against the recommendations of the Navy, he could have. And he didn't, which is why I thought he was a great senator.
Speaker A
Forgive an army guy here. What's on it? It's just a bunch of Marines and some helicopters.
Speaker A
No, there's no Marines on it. It's a hyper modular ship. The idea was that you could like completely switch over an LCS to be an anti-mine ship or to be uh search and rescue focused, yada yada yada.
Speaker A
But it does have the ability for helicopters to land. So primarily they just had them floating off the coast of South America far enough away to not be illegal and then every time a drug smuggler got out in the water and the
Speaker A
helicopter would take off and go snatch them. So it actually became like uniquely useful at that mission which is to be a little floating piece of America that could wait for, uh, you know, narco-terrorists to enter the good waters—
Speaker A
the waters where we're allowed to touch you. Uh, obviously a very different admin and I'm not sure— I'm sure they're using them more aggressively now I would guess.
Speaker A
Who knows? Who knows? That was not a dumb question, Dave. I didn't know the answer to that question either. I only knew that they had scrapped the program at some level in the past. Famously hated ship. Every sailor I've ever met
Speaker A
has been like, "That [ __ ] [ __ ] sucks. Can't do," because you know, everybody just like anywhere else, they want it to be a battleship. They want to be on the ship that shoots big guns and does
Speaker A
cool stuff and like what if we put you on the ship that doesn't really do anything great but does everything at like 30%.
Speaker A
Yeah. Sounds like an amazing program dreamt up by committee. That's what it sounds like to me.
Speaker A
Yeah. What's— What's that old army movie where they keep putting, uh, stuff on the— the— It became the Bradley, I think. Was the vehicle they were designing.
Speaker A
Pentagon Wars. There you go. I knew Dave would know this one. Man, that sounds like a— that sounds like a nerd's nerd show.
Speaker A
No, it's a comedy. It's literally just them going like, "Put a cannon on it." Like, it's a troop carrier. Like, no, put a cannon on it.
Speaker A
Is it a tank? Is it not a tank? It's a troop carrier. They should have windows to shoot out of. No, that's not going to be enough protection. They changed the requirements for the Bradley fighting getting like ideas in the world and like
Speaker A
wanting to jump out a window. It's pretty funny. Kelsey Grammar. Um, that's amazing. How come I don't know anything about this? Okay, with that, and I'll add that to my whatever my viewing list, my my content consumption list. Uh, with
Speaker A
that, welcome to the Goat Radio Podcast. I'm your host, Garrett Smith. I'm joined by my regular co-host, Simon [ __ ] angry and decked out in Montana gear. Uh, and Dave Codle, who came dressed for, uh, dressed for success, dressed to impress.
Speaker A
I think you're down in Huntsville this week, Dave. Um, what— what are you doing exactly? Attending a USA Global Force.
Speaker A
So it's essentially a conference or a trade show, but I came down specifically for an industry round table with the senior acquisitions leaders of the United States Army.
Speaker A
Very cool and I'm sure very exciting and very worthwhile just like every trade and industry, you know, expo that I've ever been to. Um, uh, good luck and Godspeed down there. Um, a couple of items maybe before we dive into the main
Speaker A
topic of discussion. Um, first, the Iran war continues. Um, this will be the jumping off point for the bigger topic. But, um, two pretty significant developments over the past week, week and a half. Uh, in addition to the Trump administration
Speaker A
potentially backing off or easing off on some of the combat operations and allowing for some amount of diplomatic engagement that's yielding potentially, you know, cleaner passage through the straits of Hormuz for the, you know, 30% of the world's global whatever oil oil
Speaker A
supply to transit that safely and calm the markets down and everything else. Um, so that is going on but at the same time, uh, we're getting mixed messaging on no boots on— no boots on the ground, right? No
Speaker A
combat force deployment onto the ground coupled up with the actual mobilization or movement of two different Marine Expeditionary Units totaling probably something in the range of 5,000 Marines and related capability to include aviation and logistics support and all
Speaker A
kinds of stuff on an amphibious ready group which includes, you know, combat projection capability from the Navy. So, two Marine Expeditionary Units inbound or on their way or potentially already arrived in the Persian Gulf region. And then most more recently than
Speaker A
that news item is that uh the first brigade combat team from the 82nd Airborne Division US Army is being prepared positioned or otherwise kind of put on standby for deployment into the same region. Um uh so with all that going on, there's a
Speaker A
lot of chaos, a lot of uncertainty about what's happening. I'll just say, you know, the position that we take as a as a company, not necessarily political, but it it's that we would prefer to deter actual combat operations if at all
Speaker A
possible. And we we propose doing that through, you know, better integration of new technologies and uh kind of triedand-true tactics, techniques, and procedures. and you know working from a standoff position and through and with allies and partners before we actually
Speaker A
project groundbased combat power into a region. We've lived and learned through u the global war terror period which didn't exactly yield stunning successes in the regions we were deployed and war is awful. So, we'd prefer to deter it,
Speaker A
but if we eventually find ourselves in that situation, we need to deploy devastating capability into the region and get it done fast, whatever that is.
Speaker A
And that set of strategic or operational and tactical objectives needs to be very clear, if not to the general public, which I I would argue the general public might not need to know all of those details, certainly for those executing
Speaker A
the operations. So, with all of that as base layer for conversation, Dave, talk to us a little bit about what uh the 82nd Airborne brings from a capability set like why they're deployed, what that mission looks like, and then if you have
Speaker A
any insight into what the first brigade combat team might actually have and in terms of combat power and what they would take into this fight, and and I don't know if you could uh maybe read tea leaves this closely, but what
Speaker A
exactly would they be doing? Are we going onto the Iranian mainland? Are we talking about Car Island? Are we what are we talking about?
Speaker A
Yeah, good question. Um, I'll read some I'll read some tea leaves. Uh, but start with just a basic description. So, the 82n Airborne is light infantry. It's light airborne infantry uh by doctrine.
Speaker A
So, paratroopers uh that are designed to be very quickly deployable um and operate lightweight uh and very quickly but not designed for long-term uh ground conflict. They don't have a ton of like inherent organic sustainment capability.
Speaker A
So this is the force that can go anywhere in the world very quickly to project power and really they're designed so they they have that sort of rapid response mission but really the organization is designed to conduct forcible entry. So they are designed to
Speaker A
jump out of an airplane um and seize critical infrastructure, sees an airfield so we can start landing planes full of uh other American soldiers or or combat power, build combat power quickly. um or sees a port. So, this is
Speaker A
about creating a lodgement, creating a place where we can build additional combat power. Um they're just the essentially the first end. Um what they're saying am I Dave? Am I right that there's like an 18 hour window, right? Like there's
Speaker A
there's like a an alert or an order comes down, they're they're supposed to be deployable within an 18 hour from notification window. Is that right?
Speaker A
Correct. That's pretty I mean that's really quick. I it always makes me wonder like why are we seeing this in the news that like they're being prepared but like they don't actually go. So my sense is there's some amount of like rhetorical
Speaker A
negotiating leverage that the Trump administration is trying to exert on the context just by saying we're thinking about deploying these guys.
Speaker A
Yeah. And I think the the sentiment down here, you know, open source information, I don't think any of this is is sensitive. the sentiment down here is that the decisions already been made to to put them forward um in in a geography
Speaker A
that's that's closer to um that's that's closer to this region. Um and yeah, you're right. They have to be is that is that Germany? Is it Italy? Is it Israel? Is it Jordan? Like what what is that actually? Do we even know?
Speaker A
Shoulderational security. I don't think that we even uh we even know. I mean, it could be a um it could be a floating, you know, something that floats in the ocean or it could be an American installation um somewhere in the in the
Speaker A
region on the ground. Essentially, what they've got there are three brigades in the 82nd Airborne that do the they do the fighting, the infantry brigades. Um and in any given time, one of them is training, one of them is resetting, and one of them is
Speaker A
ready to go in that 18 hour window. So, the one that's ready to go, you're talking about a couple of thousand light infantry men, a little bit of like logistical and sustainment support, but not much. you're you're effectively
Speaker A
talking about 200 2,000 instrument um is what we're prepositioning and though you're using the word deterrent which I think is correct my hope is that this is a deterrent play um we have positioned this capability that is very capable of
Speaker A
attacking and seizing uh a piece of terrain or critical infrastructure am I the only person that thinks this is ridiculous it's clearly a signal but a signal to what are we going to send 200,000 troops cuz the the IRGC is at at
Speaker A
the slightest this estimate 150,000 people and like stated in doctrine the 82nd is supposed to open up the follow on right like they don't this is not a force that can sit on its own in a country of 90 million and like machine
Speaker A
gun fire its way from from point A to B it's got to have a serious muscle behind it uh so and I don't think that this administration is about to send 3,000 Americans to die so it's either they they have the intent to really go
Speaker A
nuts with it after this and send a serious huge muscle movement or they're just trying to negotiate. Like I can't imagine this is a serious threat. It's hard for me to take it seriously. I I think I would agree with you. I I don't
Speaker A
and I've said this for a long time. I don't think that the Trump administration is about to do a boots on the ground deployment that sinks us into yet another quote and I'm air quoting here forever war. I mean this is
Speaker A
something that the the uh Republican and Trump base would not accept. Um, so it it is it is at at first pass deeply politically unpalatable um for the United States to do something like that again. Um, so I think I I think I agree
Speaker A
with you. Um, I what's the sustainment on the ground, Dave? Like how long could the 80 a brigade combat team that goes in and does let's say airfield seizure or something somewhere in Iran or takes Car Island, how long can they
Speaker A
self-sustain? Like what's that? What is that sustainment window? By doctrine, it's about 96 hours. And so, then it requires resupply and all.
Speaker A
Yeah, exactly. To Simon's point, this is just a very sharp tip of the very large long spear. Um, so after after about after two maybe three days, you really have to have like an airbridge major logistical function to to support and um
Speaker A
grow build to scale up scale up combat power and sustain that. It's a um and in the case of in the case of Car Island, that is doctrally part of the mission of what the ASC is designed or trained to
Speaker A
do. Uh sees a port or sees crit critical infrastructure like that contested piece of drain. I got to believe that um maybe I'll touch on the Marine Expeditionary Unite here in a moment, but I got to believe that despite all the kind of
Speaker A
negative news coverage and sentiment that the the Defense Department, the US Defense Department absolutely has plans for all of all kinds of stuff related to the Persian Gulf. Taking Car Island, doing stuff on the coastline, taking critical infrastructure and airfields.
Speaker A
And it's simply like not yet in the Trump administration's calculus to press go on any of those things. And I'm hoping that this is all just kind of building up leverage to force a diplomatic negotiated settlement to whatever this is. Right. All that being
Speaker A
said, there are definitely plans. And I got to believe that a brigade combat team from the 82nd Airborne or a Marine Expeditionary Unit is like the purpose-built entity. You'd want to go take an airfield or a coastal piece of
Speaker A
coastal infrastructure or Car Island itself or something like that on a more limited basis, which is what I always thought. I've always thought that the Car Island item would be like the perfect objective for something that was very limited. It's not on the mainland,
Speaker A
right? It's something that could be held. Um, so maybe transitioning into the Marine Expeditionary Unit deployment, the 31st and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Units, uh, both redirected from, uh, the the Pacific theater. Um, uh, each of those has a 15-day
Speaker A
self-sustaining organic self-sustaining capability from, uh, projecting combat power from amphibious ready groups, which has a whole array of naval asset kind of backend. But a Marine expeditionary unit brings basically a battalion landing team. So this is a marine infantry battalion that deploys
Speaker A
from ships. It does that with an aviation element that includes logistics and lift and um uh uh fighter aircraft and attack helicopter aircraft. Um in addition to a whole range of other stuff, reconnaissance capabilities, you know, other things. But it has a 15-day
Speaker A
sustainment window, whereas I think I just heard you say Dave, a 96-hour window for a brigade combat team from the 82nd Airborne. And again, like you could you could set up a logistics and a supply kind of back end to support them
Speaker A
potentially indefinitely given the right context. So, um my my sense is this is all buildup of leverage in in an eventual hopefully negotiated end to all of this and that we don't actually get boots on the ground. Let's talk a little
Speaker A
bit about um maybe the technology capability or the technology element of this. So Dave, you're more familiar than either uh Simon or I are on the basic equipment load out that is with, you know, a modern version of the first
Speaker A
brigade combat team at the 82nd Airborne. But is it does it look meaningfully different from the last 20 years of, you know, open desert warfare in places like Iraq and Afghanistan? Or is it still essentially the same?
Speaker A
It's still essentially just 2,000 light infantry men. I think the only meaningful change uh since the the days that you and I served in or adjacent to these units um is the 82nd and really most of the 18th Airborne Corps has
Speaker A
reorganized uh to include a multi multi-purpose reconnaissance company. Uh so there is a a company in these units that is intentionally designed um to sense in the optical in the uh electromagnetic spectrum. Um there's a paint the picture of the battlefield
Speaker A
capability that didn't exist uh years ago when we were serving in these formations. Yeah, maybe different than what we experienced is that there's a a heavier digital element to all of this and right like they would be supported by a Maven
Speaker A
smart system kind of enabled joint fires or air campaign that we've talked about a couple of times in the last couple weeks since the conflict kicked off. But I got to believe that, you know, infantrymen are pretty it's pretty
Speaker A
basic, right? There's not a lot they aren't going into combat with the, you know, the eagle eye headset from andol.
Speaker A
They're not going into combat with like laser weapons. This is basically the same carbines with roughly the same optics, with roughly the same night vision capability, with roughly the same, you know, uh, assault packs and sustainment capability. Like this, this
Speaker A
really hasn't changed for 20, 30 years, rifles, slightly better night vision goggles, and slightly and, you know, slightly improved uh slightly improved optics. Like, it's it's not and a slightly improved radio. Uh but it's basically the same kit and the same
Speaker A
loadout. To your point, what has changed is the ability to sense um and target and share that information up, down, left, and right. Uh in this formations, it's it's going to be not it's capabilities that are not organic to the
Speaker A
uh the airborne brigade or battalion. So whereas we've seen a pretty significant advance in the execution of an aviation targeting, you know, joint fires campaign maybe in smart system and the kind of paler AWS AI infused whatever kind of targeting workflows.
Speaker A
Um, the munitions in those contexts really haven't changed for a long time, but like the targeting and intelligence systems that feed them are improving. I got to believe though that like at the battalion level, right, the infantry battalion level, things are again pretty
Speaker A
much the same, which maybe that chalk that up to like these being incredibly conservative organizations that you know, you can't introduce too much too fast. Or it could be that there aren't vendors actually building things that matter in that environment or they're
Speaker A
not updating the requirements or they're looking at Ukraine and they're thinking what can we learn from that but really what can we actually deploy into this context? So is anything changing like are there are there more drones in these
Speaker A
formations? Is there are there better radios? Like yeah. Yeah. So, so the re again an infantry battalion looks largely the same for all of the light infantry companies, but an infantry battalion, the thing that has changed is um all these battalions used
Speaker A
to include an anti-armour company. So, as we're parachuting paratroopers in or as we're getting them off the boats or whatever, as they're as they're attacking and seizing, um there are wheeled Humvees um with anti-tank weapons on them uh that we're either
Speaker A
dropping out of an airplane or driving onto the beach. Um and those are are protecting the light infantrymen from tanks. And we have divevested of that capability and turned those companies into this multi-purpose reconnaissance capability that includes drones and
Speaker A
anti- drone and jamming um and EW sensing and effects. Uh that's the that's the only real difference in my mind for an infantry battalion today versus 20 years ago.
Speaker A
Yeah. Well um I'm wondering if this is just yet another example of the idea that at the end of the day, despite the fact that you can deploy very advanced, exquisite intelligencebacked fighters capability, as we've seen in this air campaign from
Speaker A
US and Israeli um force projection into Iran, at the end of the day, like basic basic infantry is really the backs stop to deter and like that is the major threat. that you know you deploy that capability into into the enemy's um you
Speaker A
know weapons engagement zone or actually onto their terrain and that um and and then at the end of the day that's a thing that exists deep in our kind of deterrent framework but it still is part of the deterrence framework and because
Speaker A
of that we should still be investing in and making use of you know the latest and greatest kind of next generation technologies without disrupting their ability to project combat power into a region and it has to be agnostic to any
Speaker A
one specific context or conflict and more general purpose so you could project it essentially anywhere. Um so do you think that um preparations for this deployment let's say that it never actually happens but do you think preparations and kind of confronting the
Speaker A
realistic or potential deployment of the 82nd Airborne into Iran on the ground does this does this shake anything loose? Are you hearing anything in the acquisition circles? In other words, does this meaningfully advance or accelerate any of the tech adoption
Speaker A
pathways that we've been monitoring now for? So, for the last two days in all these conversations that we've been having down here in in Huntsville, I haven't heard that this is going to expedite or um uh shake out um you know, meaningful
Speaker A
modern technology modernization. Most of the topics that I've uh I've heard referenced uh to this problem is about the logistics and sustainment problem.
Speaker A
Um and it's about factory to front line. um how we're going to get an unbreakable connection there. Commercial first, uh organic industrial base getting serious attention, modernizing our depots, our arsenals, our production lines, basically gearing up for a long-term
Speaker A
sustained conflict, which is terrifying. Uh not adding additional capability uh specifically to, you know, a brigade from the 82nd Airborne.
Speaker A
Okay. Well, I got to I'm I I'm believing you. I think that there that this is potentially a learning point but isn't necessarily going to be an accelerant for some of the things that we think and care about a lot. Um the last call out
Speaker A
for me and then I'll see if Simon's got anything to say. The 31st MW um has organic to it battalion landing team 31.
Speaker A
So this is third battalion first marines out of Camp Pendleton. And the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit um uh has at its core BLT, Battalion Landing Team 35 um third battalion, Fifth Marines again out of Camp Pendleton. And so uh these
Speaker A
are West Coast Marines. These are my people. And um I really hope they don't have to go in. I really hope they don't have to go in. I still don't even see where you could send them. I mean, even
Speaker A
you add all this up, you're looking at 4,000, maybe 5,000 ground combat element troops.
Speaker A
It's not enough to do anything in Iran of strategic significance. It's enough to win like one tactical victory before you need to get out of there fast before 10,000 15,000 people show up at your door.
Speaker A
I don't see anything that looks even close to the kind of mobilization you would need to sustain troops on the ground in that country. So, it's we've left ourselves with no good options. So I think I think the two main things that
Speaker A
planners are probably thinking about are one, how do we accelerate the end of this conflict, right? Like how do we force a uh you know a dilemma onto the Iranians so they need to choose to negotiate and end this thing on their
Speaker A
side. So I don't know what that is. Those are I don't know. I don't actually have no idea what that is. what what you target, what you could possibly target with, you know, um BCT f first BCT out of 82nd Airborne
Speaker A
or two Marine Expeditionary. I have no idea. And it seems to me that I I don't know. I have no idea. The second thing though is impact to like global oil markets, right? And and so opening up the straight of Hormuz seems
Speaker A
like a relatively limited thing. relatively it's not it's a complex problem obviously but Car Island is one of those kind of transit you know nodes that has a strategic position in the in that waterway and there are other
Speaker A
coastal pieces of coastal infrastructure that might serve to reduce the threat to uh oil shipping going through the straight of H formu so potentially you deploy them in a limited way to open up or reinforce the opening up of the
Speaker A
straight I I but beyond that I'm not really sure and I'm with you Simon I there's no indic ation that there's any sort of actual troop build up which would take honestly months you know um and it would be very obvious in the way
Speaker A
that like in retrospect it was quite obvious that all the pre-positioned Russian troops on the Bellar Russian Ukrainian border meant that he was actually going to go in right like everyone was will he won't he no no no
Speaker A
he will there are hundreds of thousands of troops pre-positioned and staged right on the right on the border so I think you're right Simon um in other words but those more limited objectives I could see there being a place for a
Speaker A
very limited ground incursion. Again, I'm not hoping for it. I'm just wondering what what you do with these assets. To to what end? Right. I think we're just throwing stuff at the board.
Speaker A
Send the 82. Send some Muse. Like the MW brings typically you you would say that the MU brings the wing with it, which has a bunch of strike capability, but there's already a massive, as demonstrated by Epic Fury, strike
Speaker A
capability in the region. So the MU doesn't bring anything to the table that's not already there aside from about a thousand Marines who can go like kind of not even stomp on a port. That's not enough Marines to really crush a
Speaker A
port. Not not a not a significant size. Two Muse and the 8 and a and a and a brigade combat from the 82 port.
Speaker A
All of that could probably take Car Island. Yeah. But like that what's the strategic impact to Iran?
Speaker A
uh you control all oil shipments in the straight. Isn't that the whole you will not control all you will you you'll make a dent but like what's the strategic impact? Iran is not using their Iran is just swinging at everyone.
Speaker A
They're way beyond the point of like oh you seize my own like I am bombing random facilities in random countries. I want everyone to feel the pain because I'm under so much pain and I think I can live this way. Like that is very clearly
Speaker A
the Iranian position now in the absence of leadership. I don't know who's making this decision, but their calculus for sure is I'm just going to inflict pain wildly because I think I can sit this way for a really long time.
Speaker A
Yeah, potentially. I I think the the way that you put nonmilitary pressure onto the Iranian regime visa v the population that may or may not rise up against the regime is to seriously degrade their economy, right? So that there's
Speaker A
whatever, you know, and I'm not defending it. I'm just saying we've had them under comprehensive sanction for how long now?
Speaker A
Yeah. I mean decades, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we starved or like a comprehensive sanctions for the record kills people like people starve under that kind of sanctioning and like removal from the global financial ecosystem.
Speaker A
It's like maybe that maybe that regime should u sort itself out. Maybe wishful thinking if if starving them didn't get the thing. I don't know how much more we're going to like I do wonder if potentially these ground
Speaker A
assets, you know, that um a brigade of of American army paratroopers and two marine expeditionary units, do you deploy those into a different theater altogether? And I don't mean the different theater in the sense that like into Africa or something, but like you
Speaker A
can go after the asymmetric terror network threat that Iran still uh enables and uses for destabilizing the region. Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, um, all all of those, you know, entities that are still active and operating out there. I
Speaker A
wonder if you use the Marines and the army to basically go and like actually smother those things to death.
Speaker A
That's where I think the tech conversation gets interesting because as soon as you put those troops on the ground somewhere, you're going to start seeing drones.
Speaker A
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah. And we and we don't we still don't have we don't have well not only do we not have them we don't have good counter drone capability either. Right.
Speaker A
Right. So like this these are the I think this whole conversation is underscoring the fact that it's probably not going to happen. If it happens the this is desperation.
Speaker A
Right. That's what it feels like and despate and I really hope it doesn't. I really hope those soldiers end up just you know protecting an embassy um or hanging out and going to the green bean coffee shop.
Speaker A
Um, however, if I were planning the seizure of Car Island, these are this is probably the set of units that I would use.
Speaker A
Exactly. Exactly. I think that is the if anything happens at all, I think it's that I think it's Car Island or a coastal asset that allows the US and its and its friends to exert more influence on the straight of Hormuz to
Speaker A
depressurize global oil markets and all that stuff. Okay. Well, um, it's been a it's been a good combo. Um, uh, Dave, what else is happening in Huntsville? any what's the what's the prognosis coming out of there? Any any
Speaker A
big movements? Any big announcements? Anything happening down there? Palunteer announced that that Maven is now formalized as a core US military system program of record. Um Eperis and uh Eperis and General Dynamics have teamed teamed up on autonomous
Speaker A
system for counter UAS that everybody was a buzz about. Um Andrew and and Palance here uh are announcing that they are building the software backbone for Golden D. and then all the hardware will be built around it. Um and Brent Anraham
Speaker A
and General Hodney, the commander of so the the lead acquirer and then the head of T2COM um had made some comments and most of them were related to munitions production and supply chain. That's what our senior acquirers of the United
Speaker A
States Army are very focused on at the moment is being able to scale scale fast enough and produce enough.
Speaker A
Yeah. And until we have assets like the ones you just mentioned in play, you know, Maven Smart System and Golden Dome don't directly impact this current conflict going on in Iran.
Speaker A
But at some level, they they're already deployed or they will impacted or have already impacted it. But we won't deploy ground troops into any context unless and until we figure out some of those major items. The counter drone fight is
Speaker A
I think in my mind the main one. and then deploying our own force projection capability that has, you know, a varying um spectrum of kamicazi, you know, one way attack drone platforms of our own. I I think we're not going to meaningfully
Speaker A
engage in conflict unless and until those things uh surface. And you saw this you saw this just recently at Camp Victory, right? You had FPVs uh I I've seen it reported, but I I don't know what the attribution is, um
Speaker A
from militias inside Iraq striking against the Iraqi regime. Uh Blackhawks presumably they got from us as soon as you put some stuff on the ground, right?
Speaker A
People are going to start popping up out of the woodwork. Yeah, that that's that's my fear. Like the upper system is the upper system uh was impressive.
Speaker A
Leonitis, this is a directed energy. Yeah. Yeah. Uh the system was impressive. However, um it is not capable of amphibious or airborne assault.
Speaker A
Uh so what is what is protecting this 4,000 soldiers? If they do seize Car Island, if they move, right, they're not going to be able to sit still.
Speaker A
Yeah. Shoot and scoot. Good thing we tested it in El Paso, though right? Okay. I don't I don't That was not an EPA system before we get bismerched.
Speaker A
Oh, totally. No, no, no. I'm I'm saying directed energy capabilities around. Lasers do work. For the record, they just Yeah, you don't push them out of planes usually.
Speaker A
There there is a a pretty significant uh Israeli uh technology capability that is directed energy that kind of augments and improves on their Iron Dome concept that I think that we're going to end up adopting and buying from them. So, one
Speaker A
of the one of the benefits from uh an alliance or partnership with the Israelis, Simon, which I know that you're very fond of. Um, so on that note, um, I thank you both for an incredible conversation, enlightening even. And, uh, Dave enjoyed Alabama.
Speaker A
Simon enjoy play acting as a Montana in Richmond, Virginia. And I'll go back to my life of Montana's number one fan in the South.
Speaker A
You know what? I believe that about you. I believe that about you. Okay, that's a wrap. Thanks, guys. See you next time.
Topics:USS BillingsLCSMarine Expeditionary UnitIran conflictStrait of HormuzMontana Navy shipsUS military deploymentdrug interdictionmilitary procurementGoat Rodeo Podcast
