A military expert on Tuesday revealed new details emerging after Iran struck a United States Apache helicopter and how it “changes the entire situation” involving the ongoing conflict.
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After reports that a Shahed drone struck the helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz, and it was unclear whether the drone had initially targeted the Apache or if it was an inadvertent strike, Col. Peter Mansoor told CNN that it could change the response.
“I really think that changes the entire situation because Shahed drones are not air-to-air drones,” Mansoor said. “It could have been just an accident that the drone was aimed at something else and ran into the Apache, you know, by chance. But, if it was actually aimed at the helicopter, this would be a new use for this particular type of drone, which is really an air-to-surface, guided cruise missile rather than an air-to-air missile like Ukraine has developed.”
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CNN anchor Brianna Keilar cited a recent CNN report that Iran had employed the ceasefire to help rebuild its drone supply and overall military industrial response — and asked Mansoor if that was reflected in the attack this week.
“Well, we never destroyed the entire drone capability of Iran in the first place,” Mansoor said. “In fact, much of it survived. And they were able to dig out the collapsed tunnels and so forth, and reconstitute many of their launch platforms. So I’m not sure they’re producing many new drones, but they are recovering those buried by initial strikes and getting them ready to launch. So there’s no doubt that Iran today is more capable than it was when the ceasefire began. But it’s going to take years for it to recover the sort of production capability that was lost during the airstrikes.”
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