Interesting reading. Iran would not provoke all-out war. And doesn’t have to. Worth reading before responding that nuking them would settle it for all time.
“Could Iran do it?
“It would seem so, in light of a $250 million classified US war game called Millennium Challenge 2002. The gaming scenario hypothetically pitted the Blue Team (representing US warships) against a Red Team that launched a coordinated assault using swarming boats and missiles – the kind of tactics Iran might employ.
“In the game, 16 American ships, including an aircraft carrier and most of its strike group, were sunk before the exercise was suspended and the parameters controversially changed to ensure a US victory.
“The Red Team commander, Lt. Gen. Paul K. Van Riper, told the New York Times in 2008, “The sheer numbers involved overloaded their ability, both mentally and electronically, to handle the attack.” He said he had been inspired by Marine Corps studies of the natural world, where everything from ant colonies to wolf packs took on larger prey.
“It is not a matter of size or of individual capability, but whether you have the numbers to come from multiple directions in a short period of time,” said Van Riper.”