Man accused of Iran-backed Trump assassination plot compared his plan to Butler shooting: FBI
A Pakistani man convicted on Friday of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump and other politicians told an FBI agent he thought Iran “was responsible” for the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Asif Merchant, 47, told the FBI agent, Jacqueline Smith, that the incident “was the same thing he was sent here to do,” Smith testified during Merchant’s trial. Merchant told jurors the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent him on a “mission” to kill U.S. politicians, including by telling him to attend a Republican rally.
Merchant was arrested July 12, 2024, one day prior to the shooting in Butler, where Thomas Crooks fired several shots into a rally crowd, killing one and grazing Trump’s ear.
The FBI has said repeatedly that it found no evidence that Crooks had co-conspirators or that any foreign actors were involved in the incident.
Merchant, who was convicted by a jury of murder-for-hire and attempt to commit terrorism, testified that Trump was not his only target, telling jurors then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate Nikki Haley were also on his list. He claimed that he only took part in the plot because Iran’s IRGC warned it would target his family.
FORMER IRANIAN MINISTER PRAISES TRUMP ASSASSINATION FATWA AS DAUGHTER LIVES IN NEW YORK
“I had no other options,” Merchant said. “My family was threatened.”
Merchant now faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. His sentence will be determined at a later hearing.
Merchant was arrested after he was recorded on camera outlining a plot on a napkin to kill a politician with a person who turned out to be an FBI informant. Federal prosecutors showed video during the trial of Merchant speaking to the informant. The prosecutors said Merchant also tried to hire two hit men and pay them $5,000, but the men turned out to be federal agents posing as assassins.
Smith, the FBI agent who met with Merchant after his arrest, said that Merchant never conveyed that he feared for his family. Merchant said he wanted to do intelligence work and be paid for it, Smith said.
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The FBI agent also said Merchant was told by an Iranian handler to attend a Republican political rally to scope out security but that Merchant was worried about being identified, and so he watched the rally online instead.
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Merchant’s defense team told jurors their client, who has two wives, was a family man and cared deeply about his faith and that he intentionally acted carelessly because he wanted to be caught.
In their closing arguments, defense lawyers said Merchant had his hand forced in the operation, thinking his family would be harmed if he did not cooperate. Additionally, the lawyers cited several instances where they said Merchant’s actions as an intelligence operator were little more than incompetent.
After the strikes, how would the US secure Iran’s enriched uranium?
When War Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked recently whether U.S. forces would ever move to secure enriched uranium reportedly stored at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear complex, he declined to say, citing operational security.
The exchange highlighted a question the U.S. and Israel’s air campaign alone cannot answer: even if U.S. strikes degrade Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, who would physically secure the enriched uranium, and how?
Iran is believed to possess a significant stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, near weapons-grade. That material could theoretically be used in multiple nuclear devices if further refined.
Moving from 60% to weapons-grade 90% enrichment requires additional processing, and weaponization would involve further technical steps. But analysts say the more immediate issue is physical control of the material itself.
“If the U.S. wants to secure Iran’s nuclear materials, it’s going to require a massive ground operation,” Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, told Fox News Digital.
Davenport said the highly enriched uranium believed to be stored at Isfahan appears to be deeply buried and contained in relatively mobile canisters. Securing it would likely require locating the full stockpile, accessing underground facilities and safely extracting or downblending the material.
“It’s not even clear the United States knows where all of the uranium is,” she said, noting that the mobility of storage containers raises the possibility that some material could be moved or dispersed.
The administration repeatedly has said preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains a central objective of Operation Epic Fury.
“Ultimately, this issue of Iran’s nuclear pursuit and their unwillingness through negotiations to stop it is something President Trump has said for a long time needs to be dealt with,” Hegseth said.
Senior administration officials have argued that Iran sought to build up its ballistic missile arsenal in part to create a deterrent shield — enabling Iran to continue advancing its nuclear program while discouraging outside intervention.
So far, however, the bulk of U.S. strikes have focused on degrading missile launchers, air defenses and other conventional military targets.
Experts note that dismantling missile systems may reduce Iran’s ability to shield a potential nuclear breakout. But physically controlling enriched uranium itself presents a separate and more complex challenge.
Airstrikes versus physical control
Defense officials have acknowledged that degrading nuclear infrastructure from the air is different from safely managing or securing nuclear material.
Airstrikes can destroy centrifuges, power systems and support buildings. But enriched uranium stored underground may remain intact unless it is physically secured, removed or verifiably downblended.
Striking or extracting nuclear material also carries safety risks that military planners must weigh.
If storage casks containing uranium hexafluoride gas were compromised, the material could pose chemical toxicity risks to personnel entering the site without proper protective equipment. Analysts say a conventional strike is unlikely to trigger a nuclear detonation, but dispersal of material could create localized hazards and complicate recovery efforts.
Chuck DeVore, a former Reagan-era defense official who worked on nuclear issues, argued that directly targeting the stockpile may not be a priority under current battlefield conditions.
“You don’t want to release the material into the surrounding areas and cause radioactive contamination,” DeVore said, adding that deeply buried facilities are difficult to reach from the air.
DeVore also downplayed the immediacy of a breakout scenario, arguing that further enrichment, weaponization and delivery would be difficult to execute undetected amid sustained U.S. air operations.
Even if Iran were able to further enrich uranium, he said, assembling a deliverable weapon under active military pressure would present significant technical and operational hurdles.
Still, DeVore acknowledged that long-term control of the uranium would ultimately require a political resolution inside Iran and some form of outside oversight.
What would securing it require?
Nonproliferation experts say securing enriched uranium generally involves more than military force. It requires verified accounting of the material, sustained access to storage sites and either removal or downblending to lower enrichment levels suitable for civilian use.
Davenport said internationally monitored downblending would be the safest option if political conditions allow.
“The IAEA remains the best place to go back into Iran to monitor the sites, to try to track down and account for the enriched uranium,” she said, describing downblending as a relatively straightforward technical process compared to attempting to extract and transport highly enriched material in a contested environment.
Both pathways — physical seizure or internationally monitored reduction — depend on conditions that do not currently exist.
Administration officials argue that dismantling Iran’s missile network weakens Iran’s ability to shield a nuclear breakout and reduces the immediate threat to U.S. forces and regional allies.
But suppressing missiles and controlling enriched uranium are separate challenges.
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Destroying infrastructure can slow or disrupt a program. Physically locating, accounting for and securing nuclear material requires sustained access, reliable intelligence and — ultimately — political conditions that allow it.
For now, the administration maintains that Iran will not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. How the enriched uranium itself would be secured remains a question without a public answer.
Former Iranian minister praises Trump assassination fatwa as daughter lives in New York
While former Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki praised in a Persian-language television interview the issuance of a fatwa calling for the killing of U.S. President Donald Trump, his daughter is living in New York City with her husband — an Iranian diplomat serving at the permanent mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, Fox News digital confirmed.
Mottaki, who served as Iran’s foreign minister from 2005 to 2010 under then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and remains a prominent figure in Iran’s political establishment, said Iran’s Supreme Leader had determined that Trump was a criminal and suggested Iran’s judiciary should act, according to a video reviewed by Fox News Digital.
He also described as a “brave and significant act” a religious ruling calling for the killing of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mottaki’s daughter, Zahra Assadi Nazari, is married to Nasser Assadi Nazari, who is listed as a third counselor at Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York.
The situation echoes previous controversies involving relatives of senior Iranian officials living in the United States.
In January, Emory University dismissed Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of Iranian official Ali Larijani, from a teaching position after protests over her employment at the university’s medical school.
On Sunday, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Saeid Iravani, sparred with U.S. envoy Mike Waltz during a Security Council session, telling the American ambassador to “be polite,” a remark that drew a sharp rebuke.
MIKE WALTZ TURNS TABLES ON IRANIAN ENVOY AT HEATED UN MEETING
“I have one word only: I advise the representative of the United States to be polite,” Iravani said during the meeting.
Moments later, Waltz responded: “Frankly, I’m not going to dignify this with another response, especially as this representative sits here in this body representing a regime that has killed tens of thousands of its own people and imprisoned many more simply for wanting freedom from your tyranny.”
Fox News Digital contacted Iran’s mission to the United Nations asking whether it could confirm the relationship. The mission declined to comment.
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Fox News Digital also requested comment from the U.S. Mission to the United Nations regarding Mottaki’s remarks and the broader implications of a former senior Iranian official appearing to endorse violence against the sitting U.S. president while his immediate family resides in New York. No response was received by the time of publication.
Israel strikes slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s underground military bunker
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday announced that it had dismantled former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s underground bunker in Tehran.
“The underground compound was created by the regime as a base for advancing military activities and its extremist ideologies against the State of Israel and the Western world,” the IDF said. “It spanned multiple streets in the heart of Tehran and contained numerous entrances and meeting rooms for senior members of the Iranian terrorist regime.”
Israel later released an illustrated video which showed a number of entry points throughout Tehran with tunnels leading to the underground bunker.
The fortified compound was directly under where Khamenei and other regime leaders were situated on Saturday morning when almost 50 of them were killed in under 50 seconds during the launch of Operation Epic Fury, a senior Israeli official told Fox News.
IRAN POSTPONES TEHRAN FAREWELL CEREMONY FOR KHAMENEI WHERE LARGE CROWDS WERE EXPECTED TO GATHER
The official said that Khamenei spent millions of dollars and a number of years building the bunker, which he did not use on the morning of the strike. Sources familiar with the intelligence say that Khamenei believed no one had the guts to strike him.
The senior Israeli official told Fox News that Khamenei’s confidence was partially thanks to an Israeli-American deception plan that included messaging, signals and public statements by President Donald Trump that suggested nothing immediate was coming. Top IDF commanders even went home on Friday night, hours before the strike, in an attempt to deceive Iranian leadership.
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Khamenei was killed on the first day of Operation Epic Fury after ruling the Islamic Republic for more than 30 years. During that time, he oversaw harsh internal crackdowns, including the most recent one in January, which targeted Iranian protesters, as well as international confrontations.
Shadow fleet under fire: Iran’s strait shutdown could squeeze Russia’s war chest, China’s oil lifeline
Tehran’s strike campaign threatens to disrupt shadow shipping networks and sanctions-evasion routes, raising energy costs for Moscow and Beijing and potentially squeezing Russia’s war funding and China’s industrial and military supply chains.
As of Monday, the Iranian regime declared the crucial Strait of Hormuz — between Hormuz Island, Iran, and the Omani enclave of Khasab — closed, under threat of vessels being “torched.”
Oil tanker traffic immediately fell sharply as merchant seamen now fear missile strikes, but the conflict has also affected the so-called “shadow fleet” of unflagged or surreptitiously flagged oil tankers connected to economically isolated countries like Cuba, Iran and Russia.
The U.S. has already set up a quasi naval quarantine of oil imports to Cuba, while countries like Mexico have been warned against sending oil to malign regimes.
European partners have also taken action against “shadow fleet” vessels, tightening the vise on China and particularly Russia amid the new unrest.
Belgium’s army on Monday interdicted a shadow-fleet tanker called the MT Ethera as it transited the North Sea.
Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken told GCaptain News that the tanker was redirected to Zeebrugge by an escort and would be seized by Brussels.
“Operation Blue Intruder was carried out by a team of exceptionally brave service members. Excellent work,” he said, as the outlet also reported the ship was tied to a confidant of Khamenei.
The MT Ethera is reportedly linked to the son of senior political adviser Ali Shamkhani, whose family reportedly controls an entire fleet of tankers that may be used to facilitate Iranian and Russian oil trade.
RUSSIAN OIL TANKER ‘THE GRINCH’ INTERCEPTED AS US, ALLIES ESCALATE SANCTIONS CRACKDOWN
A consortium of Western powers also enforces the Ural Price Cap, which was dropped to about $44 per barrel last month. Named for the Ural Mountains, the price cap is meant to keep Russian oil below free-market rates.
This newly emboldened Western targeting of the so-called “gray market” of shadow-fleet oil indicates potential problems for nations that rely on it, such as China and Cuba.
China reportedly relies heavily on Iran for otherwise sanctioned oil, while Russia could see further belt-tightening that could adversely affect the cash flow needed to continue its war in Ukraine.
Additionally, CENTCOM this week posted a video of a U.S. strike on a drone-carrying Iranian ship, and Cmdr. Brad Cooper said more than 30 such Tehran-linked vessels have been sunk since the offensive began, according to Naval Today.
“In the last few hours alone, we struck an Iranian drone carrier roughly the size of a World War II-era aircraft carrier, and it is currently on fire,” Cooper told the outlet.
The reported obliteration of the Ayatollah and the next 48 successors, by President Donald Trump’s count, along with the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, leaves not only the shadow fleet but also its customer nations’ suppliers in shambles.
FIRES RAGE AT IRAN’S BANDAR ABBAS NAVAL HEADQUARTERS, STRAIT OF HORMUZ TRAFFIC STALLED
Just as OPEC rate hikes affect American energy prices, the deconstruction of the shadow fleet could also lead to inflation in China.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Treasury Department for more information on the effects of the shadow fleet, as it oversees the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
In the past few weeks, OFAC has sanctioned 30 people or entities tied to enabling illegal Iranian oil sales and/or benefiting its weapons production as part of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign.
“OFAC targeted additional vessels operating as part of Iran’s shadow fleet, which transport Iranian petroleum and petroleum products to foreign markets and serve as the regime’s primary source of revenue for financing domestic repression, terrorist proxies, and weapons programs,” the agency said in a statement.
“Iran exploits financial systems to sell illicit oil, launder the proceeds, procure components for its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, and support its terrorist proxies,” added Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“Treasury will continue to put maximum pressure on Iran to target the regime’s weapons capabilities and support for terrorism, which it has prioritized over the lives of the Iranian people,” Bessent said.
GAS PRICES COULD JUMP AS MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS THREATEN GLOBAL OIL SUPPLY
OFAC then listed off a dozen ships they confirmed to be “shadow fleet” vessels under sanction.
“Instead of allocating this revenue for the benefit of the Iranian people, the regime ultimately siphons it off to fund regional terrorist proxies, weapons programs, and repressive security services, rather than the basic economic needs the Iranian people have repeatedly and courageously demanded,” the Treasury said.
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Ships flagged from Panama, Barbados, Palau, Comoros, Iran and Vanuatu were found by the U.S. to have transported millions of barrels of Iranian crude in recent years.
The Treasury Department, which oversees OFAC, did not respond to inquiries for this story.
53 Dems vote against declaring Iran a state sponsor of terror
Dozens of Democrats have voted against a nonbinding resolution in the House that reaffirms Iran as the “largest state sponsor of terrorism.”
The resolution, put forward by Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., passed by a 372-53 vote on Thursday, with all those voting no being Democrats. Two Democrats also voted present.
Among those who voted against the measure were all the members of the “Squad,” such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
The resolution said the Islamic Republic of Iran “remains the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism and provides substantial financial and military support to groups including Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis.”
It added that Iran “poses a direct and persistent threat to the United States and is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American citizens,” citing the Pentagon as saying that “Iranian-backed proxy militias are responsible for the deaths of at least 603 U.S. service members in Iraq — roughly one in every six American combat fatalities.”
It also said, “according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafeal Grossi, Iran has amassed a large stockpile of enriched uranium and continues to block access to undeclared sites in Iran affiliated with their ‘big, ambitious nuclear weapons program.’”
READ THE RESOLUTION – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:
The resolution concludes by saying, “That the House of Representatives declares it is the policy of the United States… that Iran continues to be the largest state sponsor of terrorism.”
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California Democratic Rep. Lateefah Simon, who voted no, claimed the resolution “contains inaccuracies and is designed to justify the President’s actions in Iran.”
“Republicans in Congress are not only surrendering their constitutional duties – they are also playing politics with a resolution reaffirming Iran as a leading state sponsor of terrorism,” Simon wrote on Facebook. “That is already U.S. policy.”
“I have been clear about my opposition to the brutal and devastating actions of the Iranian regime against those protesting for freedom,” Simon continued. “This resolution does nothing to advance their freedom and instead, puts Congress on record as giving the Administration further pretext for a war that should not have been started in the first place.”
Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., who voted in favor of the resolution, said in a statement that, “This week’s bipartisan classified briefing with Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, John Ratcliffe, and General Dan Caine underscored the significance of the threat we face from an Iran intent on developing nuclear weapons behind a curtain of impenetrable ballistic weapons.”
“Standing with our allies and confronting state-sponsored terrorism is essential to protecting Americans and advancing stability around the world,” she added. “This resolution sends a strong message that we will not ignore or excuse the regime’s extremist actions.”
Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington state who also voted in favor of the resolution, said, “I agree with the principal assertion of this resolution that Iran is a bad actor.
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“Iran’s malign and destabilizing actions in the region and treatment of its own citizens should be denounced. I have never contested this. What I do contest is that going to war is the reasonable response to this assertion,” he continued. “I support this resolution. I do not support the president’s war of choice with Iran.”
Full list of 53 House Democrats who voted no:
Here are the full names of the Democratic House lawmakers listed alphabetically by last name:
- Donald S. Beyer Jr.
- Suzanne Bonamici
- André Carson
- Greg Casar
- Joaquin Castro
- Yvette D. Clarke
- Steve Cohen
- Danny K. Davis
- Maxine Dexter
- Lloyd Doggett
- Dwight Evans
- Lizzie Fletcher
- Valerie Foushee
- Maxwell Alejandro Frost
- Robert Garcia
- Jesús “Chuy” García
- Al Green
- Adelita Grijalva
- Val Hoyle
- Jared Huffman
- Sara Jacobs
- Pramila Jayapal
- Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr.
- Robin Kelly
- Ro Khanna
- Raja Krishnamoorthi
- Summer Lee
- Sarah McBride
- Morgan McGarvey
- James P. McGovern
- LaMonica McIver
- Christian D. Menefee
- Robert Jacobsen “Rob” Menendez Jr.
- Gwen Moore
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Ilhan Omar
- Chellie Pingree
- Mark Pocan
- Ayanna Pressley
- Delia Ramirez
- Emily Randall
- Luz Rivas
- Linda T. Sánchez
- Janice D. “Jan” Schakowsky
- Lateefah Simon
- Mark Takano
- Rashida Tlaib
- Lori Trahan
- Lauren Underwood
- Nydia M. Velázquez
- Maxine Waters
- Bonnie Watson Coleman
- Nikema Williams.
Iranian vessel suffers engine failure, offloads crew days after US submarine sank other ship
An Iranian ship offloaded more than 200 members of its crew to Sri Lanka on Friday after suffering an engine failure at sea, just days after a U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship in an Indian Ocean torpedo attack.
The IRIS Bushehr, described in previous Iranian media reports as a navy logistics ship, is being brought first to the port of Colombo, according to Sri Lanka navy spokesman Cmdr. Buddhika Sampath. Sailors are being taken to a naval base in Welisara following medical exams and immigration procedures.
“We have to understand that this is not an ordinary situation,” Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said Thursday. “It’s a request by a ship belonging to one party to enter into our port. We have to consider that according to the international treaties and conventions.”
Dissanayake added that authorities decided to take control of the IRIS Bushehr following discussions with Iranian officials and the ship’s captain, after one of its engines failed. He said some crew members would remain on board to help the Sri Lankan navy later navigate the vessel to Trincomalee on the island’s northeast coast, about 165 miles from Colombo.
The moves come after the U.S. sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka’s coast on Wednesday.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said it was “the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II.”
The Indian navy said Thursday that it had initiated search and rescue operations after receiving a distress signal from the Dena, deploying two aircraft along with a sailing training vessel. By the time the response was launched, the Sri Lankan navy had already started its own rescue efforts, it said.
The Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 87 bodies after the attack, according to The Associated Press.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Thursday that the U.S. will “bitterly regret” striking and sinking that ship.
“The U.S. has perpetrated an atrocity at sea, 2,000 miles away from Iran’s shores,” Araqchi wrote on X. “Frigate Dena, a guest of India’s Navy carrying almost 130 sailors, was struck in international waters without warning.”
US ‘WINNING DECISIVELY’ AGAINST IRAN, WILL ACHIEVE ‘COMPLETE CONTROL’ OF AIRSPACE WITHIN DAYS, HEGSETH SAYS
“Mark my words: The U.S. will come to bitterly regret precedent it has set,” he added.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday that the Iranian vessel was “effectively neutralized” in a Navy “fast attack” using a single Mark 48 torpedo.
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He added that the U.S. Navy achieved “immediate effect, sending the warship to the bottom of the sea.”
Here come the big bombs as US escalates strikes on Iran’s huge military arsenal
“Our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at U.S. Central Command headquarters on Thursday.
From a tactical perspective, the scale of the airstrikes unleashed in Operation Epic Fury indicates that the U.S. almost waited too long. Starting the campaign to take out Iran’s ballistic missiles and drones required strikes on almost 2,000 aimpoints in just the first few days. That’s one munition per aimpoint, and there could be thousands more to go.
It was now or never. Iran planned to stockpile missiles and drones and build a handful of nuclear weapons that no military force could reach. “Iranian negotiators said to us directly, with no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60% and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs,” U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday.
The terrifying scale of Iran’s target set went unnoticed by most of the world until last Saturday.
Imagine how difficult this job would have been in a few years — especially with Russia and China helping Iran restock.
“This operation needed to happen because Iran, in about a year or a year and a half, would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones that no one could do anything about it because they could hold the whole world hostage,” Rubio said on Capitol Hill on Monday. “Look at the damage they’re doing now. And this is a weakened Iran … imagine a year from now,” he added.
With Iran’s command and control degraded and air defenses flattened, the southern air ingress approaches to the country are wide open. “And now, with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS–and laser-guided precision gravity bombs, of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile,” Hegseth said at the Pentagon on Wednesday.
Here come the big bombs to take on hundreds of targets. Those targets include factories, weapons storage sites and every IRGC facility U.S. forces can find. And it’s all happening while a 2,000-mile arc of aerial defense continues.
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The U.S. is not running out of bombs for Operation Epic Fury. Here are seven systems seeing heavy action:
Joint Direct Attack Munition: JDAMs use GPS satellite guidance to hit precise coordinates. The combat-proven JDAM family of munitions is actually a kit. You take a Mk 82 500-pound free-fall gravity bomb, a Mk 83 1,000-pound bomb body or a Mk 84 2,000-pound bomb body, then attach a precision seeker and a tail kit with steering fins just before missions. Military munitions specialists — sometimes called AMMO troops — build the bombs before loading them onto the aircraft. In the Navy, for example, you can spot ordnance loaders on an aircraft carrier deck by their red jerseys. In 2003, U.S. fighter and bomber crews dropped 5,086 of the 2,000-pound GBU-31 JDAMs in Operation Iraqi Freedom. So yes, planners knew to stock up. A new wing kit doubled the range for the JDAM Extended Range variant. JDAMs can attack “off-axis,” meaning behind or to the side of the fighter or bomber.
GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb: Combining precision with powerful explosives, the Small Diameter Bomb weighs 250 pounds and has a remarkable 40-nautical-mile range when launched, along with the ability to strike moving vehicles. The bomb body is advanced, with a more powerful but compact explosive that limits collateral damage. Aircrews can change coordinates in flight for this GPS-guided munition. F-22 Raptors can drop SDBs while flying supersonic.
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Patriot and THAAD: U.S. forces are leading the defense against missile and drone threats. Patriot remains the gold standard for terminal-phase intercepts, and Hegseth noted inventories were in good shape. THAAD — Terminal High Altitude Area Defense — is also widely used.
Air-to-air missiles: For drones, there are many options, starting with fighter aircraft armed with AMRAAMs (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles) and AIM-9 Sidewinders. Drones can be tricky to detect on radar, but recent experience in Ukraine means the U.S. has fresh identifying characteristics to work with. Once in range, the slow, hot, whirring pusher engine of Iran’s Shahed drones is not difficult to target. However, Hegseth noted counter-UAS systems have been pushed forward. You knew American technology was the foundation of Ukraine’s superb air defenses, right?
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VAMPIRE and Coyote: The VAMPIRE counter-drone system’s name says it all: Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment. That means it can go on almost any truck and fire different missiles. The Navy rushed it to Ukraine in 2023, and since then, “VAMPIRE users have successfully shot down hundreds of enemy drones,” according to manufacturer L3Harris. Other examples include Coyote, a small drone that can launch from a sonobuoy to destroy hostile drones or loiter to disable them with electronic jamming in its “non-kinetic” variant. Both have been tested against drone swarms.
To be sure, some Standard Missile-3 Block 1A and Block 2B variants have been heavily taxed. U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers launch SM-3s for exo-atmospheric, midcourse hit-to-kill shots against Iranian ballistic missiles.
On Feb. 4, the Pentagon anticipated the need and announced Tomahawk production would be boosted to 1,000 per year, AMRAAMs to at least 1,900, and SM-6 missiles to more than 500 annually, with SM-3 production accelerating to two to four times its classified annual rate. For obvious reasons, full munitions inventories are not public information.
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“Your joint force is steady, frosty, calm and focused,” Caine said.
And they have the weapons to carry out their missions.
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