PerspectiveIf U.S. Claims of How the Saudi Oil Attack Went Down Are True, Then the Failure to Prevent It Is a Huge Embarrassment
It has yet to be definitively established how the massively disruptive attacks this past weekend on a crucial Saudi oil facility took place. The version of events being advanced by U.S. officials, however — that most of the damage was from cruise missiles launched from Iran — raises the embarrassing question of why the U.S. military was unable to do anything about it. the airspace around Iran and Saudi Arabia is some of the best-defended and most intensively monitored on earth, thanks to the decades-long buildup of U.S. assets there. But on Saturday those defenses failed to prevent what U.S. officials have said were at least 17 separate strikes. Based on information made public about the strikes, defense insiders were left wondering how the U.S. military had fared so poorly in one of its primary missions in the region.
It has yet to be definitively established how the massively disruptive attacks this past weekend on a crucial Saudi oil facility took place.
The version of events being advanced by U.S. officials, however — that most of the damage was from cruise missiles launched from Iran — raises the embarrassing question of why the U.S. military was unable to do anything about it.
Mitch Prothero writes in Business Insider that the airspace around Iran and Saudi Arabia is some of the best-defended and most intensively monitored on earth, thanks to the decades-long buildup of U.S. assets there. But on Saturday those defenses failed to prevent what U.S. officials have said were at least 17 separate strikes.
Based on information made public about the strikes, defense insiders were left wondering how the U.S. military had fared so poorly in one of its primary missions in the region.
One former U.S. Navy officer, who deployed to the Persian Gulf region twice to operate air-defense systems, said it would be nearly impossible for the U.S. not to notice the attack as it happened or attempt to intercept the weapons.
“It’s very hard to imagine a salvo of 17 shots from Iranian territory not being picked up via some land and sea radars,” said the former officer who asked not to be identified discussing U.S. military capabilities in the region.
“Over the Persian Gulf is hard to comprehend … in that there’d be a lot of radars to detect it. There may be ships in-port [in] Bahrain whose air-defense radar would pick it up.”
The attack Saturday struck two key oil facilities in the energy-rich eastern part of Saudi Arabia and knocked out about 5 percent of the world’s oil production.
