Blaine Holt to Newsmax: US Must Watch Growing Drone, Terrorism Threat

The United States remains well-positioned militarily against Iran, though emerging threats such as inexpensive attack drones and potential terror plots require close monitoring as the conflict enters a new phase, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt said Sunday on Newsmax.

"Well, I'm very confident of that," Holt said when asked by Newsmax's "Wake Up America" about the U.S. military's capacity in the conflict.

"But I will tell you that the resources are not unlimited or infinite," he added. "When you have finite resources and missile interceptors, then you can apply different tactics and strategies to mitigate that risk."

Still, Holt said that despite concerns about missile interceptor supplies, the United States still has the resources needed to counter Iranian threats.

U.S. forces have been actively weakening Iran's ability to launch large-scale attacks, Holt said.

"We still have interceptors. There's no emergency crisis," Holt said.

"But you see that they have lost the ability to hit barrages like they were before, because the United States Air Force and U.S. Navy team is systematically destroying anything that lights up to try to launch out of Iran," he added.

Holt said sustained air operations have significantly reduced Iran's offensive capability, though he warned that smaller, harder-to-detect threats are becoming a growing concern.

"The threat is getting greatly diminished by active air power in the area," he said.

However, Holt said the next phase of the conflict could involve irregular attacks using inexpensive drones.

"Another part we have to watch now very carefully is what about all those drones that can be just launched off of the back of a pickup truck? That's the next big threat," Holt said.

He pointed to recent activity in the region as evidence of the evolving security situation.

"You're already seeing some of that in Bahrain and other places where apparently the IRGC doesn't have any way to talk to its leadership as to whether they're going to do something or not," Holt said.

"We saw a terror plot in Azerbaijan that was taken apart last night, thank goodness. An oil pipeline going between Tbilisi in Georgia and Baku in Azerbaijan," he noted, warning that the risk of terrorism linked to the conflict could extend beyond the Middle East.

"It's getting very, very dynamic," he said. "The president is right. We're going into a new phase, but we have to be very watchful about terror threats, not just there, but here at home as well."

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's national security adviser, Steve Yates, also addressed the broader regional dynamics, including Israel's operations against Iranian-linked targets.

The Israel Defense Forces said it killed four commanders from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Beirut who were allegedly planning a terror plot against Israel.

Yates said such actions fit into a broader strategy between the U.S. and Israel to counter Iranian influence and its regional proxies.

"I think it is very consistent with the layered approach that the United States and Israel have had," Yates said.

He said the strategy divides responsibilities between the two allies.

"The United States seems to have the highest priority in defanging the threat by hitting capabilities, and the Israeli forces have the layer that looks at leaders and nodes of influence and power," Yates said.

Yates added that Iran's ties to groups such as Hezbollah have long been a known risk in the region.

"The notion that there were ties into Hezbollah and other organizations was, as [former U.S. Secretary of Defense] Donald Rumsfeld would say, a 'known known,'" Yates said, noting that both Israel and the United States must counter threats coming from Iran itself as well as its proxies.

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