YES IT IS.

Also, damn, Pritzker’s hitting the Ozempic awfully hard. He’s running for Prez for sure.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump 47 — Come for the Jokes, Stay for the Awesome President Stuff. “President Trump’s shoot-from-the-lip speaking style drives some people crazy, but I’ve always thought it’s a feature, not a bug. There’s the entertainment value, of course, but it also lends an honesty to his public persona that is lacking in most politicians.”

THEY’RE PROBABLY HIDING FROM DRONES:

Trump has pretty much the whole Muslim world against Iran and its allies now. Well, except for Britain and France.

FASTER, PLEASE: Pentagon Eyes Second B-21 Production Line.

The U.S. military struck a $4.5 billion deal last month to increase the rate of production on its new B-21 bomber. Now officials are considering whether they will open up an entire second production line to go even faster in constructing the sixth-generation stealth Raider.

Adm. Richard Correll, head of U.S. Strategic Command, told lawmakers March 17 that his command still believes the Air Force needs to increase its planned B-21 fleet to 145 airplanes—a figure his predecessor Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton endorsed last March. A second production line could be a way to reach that goal.

“There are, of course, investments that have been made to increase the production rate and to potentially open a second production line,” Correll told the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces. “That decision has yet to be made, but clearly the B-21 represents a really significant capability both from a conventional and a nuclear perspective.”

The current Air Force program of record specifies a minimum of 100 B-21s, to be built by Northrop Grumman at its Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. The planes are needed to replace aging B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers in the 2030s.

Aside from Bidenflation and COVID lockdown-related delays, the Raider program is progressing remarkably well for modern, large procurement effort.

But if the B-21 is to do double deterrence duty against Russia and China, conventionally and the in nuclear role, we likely need 300 of them.

Related:

WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL: Saudi Arabia threatens strikes on Iran.

Saudi Arabia has threatened to strike back at Iran after attacks on oil and gas sites across the Gulf caused prices to surge across the globe.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, warned on Thursday night that patience with Tehran was running out after an oil refinery was hit and eight Iranian ballistic missiles targeted Riyadh.

“This pressure from Iran will backfire politically and morally and certainly we reserve the right to take military actions if deemed necessary,” he said.

Related:

NAILED IT:

SUPER EASY:

DISPATCHES FROM THE CAPTAIN OF THE SOMALI PIRATES:

NEXT!

Busy night.

THE ENEMY WITHIN:

EVERYBODY LOVES THE FA, BUT SO FEW PLAN FOR THE FO:

More:

Anyway, back in 2022, you made comments where you urged conservatives to leave New York and go to Florida. We did. We took our money with us as well, because that’s how those things work. Now you want us back? Nah…

See, you’re in the “FO” stage of “FAFO.” It’s pretty glorious to behold. Good luck with all your social justice programs without the capital to fund them.

Don’t blame me, I voted for Lee Zeldin.

Heh.

NASTY: Iranian cluster munitions pose additional challenge for Israel’s air defenses.

Iran has launched dozens of missiles with cluster munition warheads ​at Israel since the start of the war, posing a challenge for Israel’s missile defense shield as they need to be ‌hit before they split and disperse into smaller explosives.

Israel failed to intercept one of the cluster missiles overnight, and its small bomblets scattered into civilian areas in Tel Aviv. A couple in their 70s was killed, and one of Tel Aviv’s main train stations suffered damage.

Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters that the couple ​was killed in their apartment by a single, cluster munition bomblet.

“This cluster bomb was fired by the Iranian regime towards a ​center of mass population, firing dozens of rockets towards the civilians, deliberately targeting civilians,” he said. “This is a ⁠war crime by the Iranian regime.”

Cluster munitions have their uses, but not like that.