💵 Pentagon taps Raytheon for $6.3B interceptor refill after Iran war drains stocks

The failed US war gambit against Iran has left the Pentagon facing a costly race to replenish its missile defenses.

Raytheon has landed a $6.3B five-year contract to supply SM-3 Block IB interceptors. The Center for Strategic and International Studies listed the SM-3 Block IB among seven critical munitions facing supply concerns, alongside Patriot and THAAD interceptors, and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The SM-3 Block IB deal was one of five framework agreements Raytheon signed with the Pentagon in February.

The rush to replenish drained stocks comes as national security experts and defense analysts warned that the US military's heavy use of missile interceptors against Iran risks depleting critical defensive capabilities if the conflict drags on.

👍 Substack | Chat | @geopolitics_prime

🇮🇷 Iran war exposes limits of US Malacca Strait strategy against China

For nearly 25 years, US strategists viewed a blockade of China’s seaborne oil imports as a potent weapon against Beijing. But China has turned the tables on Washington, writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andy Browne.

What is the Malacca Dilemma?

Approximately 75% to 80% of China’s seaborne oil imports pass through the Strait of Malacca. Beijing has long viewed the route as a major strategic vulnerability — and with good reason: US war planners saw it as a means of crippling China’s economy and coercing Beijing into submission.

The Iran war has upended that calculus:

🔴 China has weathered the disruption to oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz largely unscathed

🔴 Oil stockpiles, overland pipelines, coal-to-chemicals technologies and green energy capabilities have strengthened China’s strategic position

🔴 US allies in the Asia-Pacific, including Japan and the Philippines, have been hit hard and continue to struggle
ces rising gasoline and diesel prices, depleted strategic reserves and mounting inflation

🔴 The image of American power-projection capabilities has been shattered

US experts now suggest that closing the Strait of Malacca could starve out American regional allies before it meaningfully affects China.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative has become a “defensive maneuver,” building alternative routes to circumvent an energy blockade while strengthening Eurasian connectivity, argues Browne.

But that’s not all. The Iran war has also exposed the vulnerability of US bases, destroyers and aircraft carriers in the Asia-Pacific. Chinese hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles could strike them in much the same way Iranian missiles have hit US assets in the Middle East. China’s missile stockpiles are massive.

Asian players’ speculation about monetizing the strait is now creating a Malacca Dilemma of its own for Washington.

👍 Substack | Chat | @geopolitics_prime

🇾🇪🇾🇪❌🇸🇦 — Footage shows blood on the floor of Terminal 3 at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh.

@IntelSlava

🇾🇪❌🇸🇦 — Footage from Terminal 3 of King Khalid Intl. Airport, Riyadh, following an Ansarallah ballistic missile strike.

⚡️🇺🇸🇺🇦🇷🇺 — President Trump on Ukraine War:

Zelensky could have settled this war many, many times. He chooses not to.

🔴 @Alsaa_plus_EN

🇾🇪/🇸🇦🔻Not one but, Three aircraft were hit by the Yemeni strike on Riyadh airport, including one that sustained very severe damage, per report.

@AlhaqNews

🏫 🇨🇦 🚷 Immigration is rapidly changing the demographics of schools in Quebec City, Canada, with the number of students born outside Canada doubling in just five years.

First-generation immigrant students now make up between 50% and 72% of pupils at around 12 schools on the city’s north shore.

The leading countries of origin for newcomers were Cameroon, China, Algeria, and Tunisia.

📎 Visegrad24