Jim Geraghty of National Review Online assesses significant developments among America’s geopolitical rivals.
[C]ompared to what’s going on around the world, the inside-the-Beltway turf fights seem awfully small potatoes. The U.S. determined there was a serious threat of a drone attack against its planes at RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom; Russian drones are killing people on civilian cargo ships off the coast of Romania; there are still far too few answers about that state-run plague research lab scientist who suddenly dropped dead in Russia; and new reasons to believe that Xi Jinping may not be in the best of health. Oh, and the Russian military may have misplaced the hand of a saint on the battlefield in Ukraine. …
… First, an update to yesterday’s story about the U.S. withdrawal of all B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford. It is, apparently, as bad as some people feared; the U.S. worried that the Iranians were preparing a version of Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web — smuggling drones into the county or near the country and attacking planes parked on the airfield. From the Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. abruptly moved a dozen B-1 bomber aircraft from a U.K. military base on Sunday because of urgent concerns about a potentially complex drone attack ordered by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to U.S. and European officials briefed on the matter.
The planned attack was part of a multifaceted Iranian plot to target the aircraft and kill personnel at RAF Fairford, including American pilots, the officials said.
In Operation Spider’s Web, Ukraine smuggled 117 attack drones hidden in trucks and shipping containers deep into Russian territory — in some cases, thousands of miles into the country — then used them to attack 41 Russian planes worth $7 billion at four air bases. …
… Just about anything the good guys can do, the bad guys can do as well.
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