this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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One of the torpedos we are actively using in a Iran right now costs $4.8 million each.
One of the missiles shown I believe is the RIM-116 (not been in it for a while), each one costs $950,000.
The numbers shown might not be 100% accurate but they're very much in the correct ballpark
What first made me completely disbelieve the video was the Phalanx costing hundreds of thousands in a few seconds. That's order of magnitude wrong. Yes, the RIM-116 is in the ballpark although still too high.
Anyway, the video is bullshit. That has nothing to do with whether the point it is trying to make is. No need to get that defensive.
Except the ultimate point is how much money we spend on pointless death. And you dissing a video for making that point when it got one wrong is kind part of it. It's missing the forest for the trees.
Going bigger picture, the war in Iran is costing $70 million a day currently (actual estimates I've seen. even worse with Pentagon's own billion a day estimate). That would cover food stamps for over ten million people. That's the point of the video, not the specific numbers for a phalanx shell
It's not getting one wrong. But much more importantly, if your point is backed up by fake numbers, no one who didn't agree with you from the start is going to take you seriously. Pointing bullshit early is important, unless you want your greater point undermined by bullshit numbers.