Joe Piscopo rules New York City drive time radio.  This conversation dissected Iran’s motives, the economic pressure applied by warrior Treasury Secretary Bessent, plus the U.S. Air Force’s new F-47 stealth fighter — and where the heck is the Navy’s sixth-generation F/A-XX? Highlights below and link here.

Joe Piscopo: Iran’s got that apocalyptic end-of-the-world kind of mantra that they live by, but how are we doing militarily?  We’ll probably have to finish this off militarily with air strikes after we sanctioned them into submission, correct?

Rebecca Grant: From a military perspective, can I say this: our 50,000 U.S. service members there are kicking butt.  Whether it’s the steel wall blockade, the defense against air and missiles, or our Space Force watching all of that, they are doing an absolutely fantastic job.  Here’s the problem: the IRGC, they just have to survive, and they want to strike back with those missile strikes and drone strikes towards Kuwait that we saw last night and earlier in the week.  But we still have the military pressure, the strikes, and the economic pressure.  Admiral Cooper saw the Iranians trying to rebuild and restart some radar-guided missile defenses, etc., and he just picked up all those targets and hit them hard.

Joe Piscopo: It’s frustrating because Iran, they are like cockroaches. You step on them, they pop right back.  Is that because they’re getting help from China and Russia?

Rebecca Grant: Well, they’ve gotten a lot of help from Russia and China in the past.  Most of their military equipment is Russian, and they have some Chinese systems, including missiles, but right now the blockade has everything choked off. You saw Iran’s president up there talking to Putin earlier this week.  Both of those guys, they have this in common: they are losing, and they’re just held together by their hatred of America.   You’re right, Joe, it is a chess game, and that’s why economic pressure is important.  Secretary Bessent, he’s a warrior.  He’s got his target list.  The IRGC is a huge business, as well as a thug terrorist organization.  So Bessent is trying to target a lot of their overseas assets and then anything that does any business with Iran: financiers, teapot oil refineries out in China, the last little pieces of this, and we just have to hold all this together and persist.

Joe Piscopo: All right, geek time for a second. I’m watching this incredible plane, the F-22. Then walk me through the F-35, and what’s the new one, the F-47, is that right?

Rebecca Grant: Yes, the secret new plane will be the F-47, made by Boeing for the United States Air Force.  Super stealthy; think of it as a fighter-bomber. It also has a lot of electronic warfare and non-kinetic attack abilities.  It is highly secret right now.  It’s in test and we are looking possibly for a first flight maybe even in 2027.  The Navy also has a secret stealth plane that’s going to be built either by Boeing or Northrop Grumman, and we’re waiting for the Pentagon to make a decision!  Congress told them to make the decision in August, so come on!   You know, the carriers have done great, but they need their new plane for extra range so they can maneuver and strike targets in the Pacific.  They have a new long-range missile, the Malice, that greatly adds to their strike range, and they’re getting a drone refueling and reconnaissance drone.  So, a lot for naval aviation.  They’ve done such a good job over in Central Command, but they need a few things going forward for the Pacific

This article was originally published on the Lexington Institute: Dominating Iran, and Where the Heck is the Navy’s Sixth-Generation F/A-XX Stealth Fighter?  (From the Joe Piscopo Show) | Lexington Institute

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