infinite money? lol we're no different than any other country with natural resources. Canada has 10 times the natural resource we have. They have as much oil and a million times more water and farmable land. Turkey has more water than Iran which means more hydro electricity, more farmland, more food... Russia is the same as Canada. Every country is strong in one natural resource.
Saudi Arabia is an exception because they have the luxury of exporting more than 8 million barrels of oil. Iran exports only 2 million barrels of oil and we have 2-3 times the population and we're under sanctions and have been for 32 years, which takes me to my other point.
We are under sanctions and that's damaging our economy. We can't export to Europe and North America and in Asia and Africa the Western nations have made it difficult. We can't import high tech and we can't work with Western companies. Our companies can't get loans from Western banks. In short, everything must be financed by the Iranian government. That's why every penny counts. Iran's economy would experience 9-10 percent growths annually without sanctions so you can see the damage that it's causing.
btw, we actually are spending more money on health and education. For the past 3 decades, our healthcare and education spending have both been higher than our defence spending which has always hovered around 2-3% of GDP. We see no threat from any country around us except the US and we're solely focused on coming up with deterrents against the US.
Define a "potent and capable" airforce. Turkey would get wiped to the floor at a war with the US so even if we had the luxury of buying jets that Turkey has, it would still be a waste of money.
The only country that might have capability of hitting every missile silo is the US. As of now, you would be right, our ballistic missiles wouldn't be that much of a use. But as we increase the accuracy they become more potent. Suddenly, Iran would have the ability to take out every power station and oil field in the Persian Gulf. This would send oil prices to the moon. Even now we could take out every power station in the UAE.
Fateh 110 is a short range missile with a 500 meter CEP. Mathematically 10 of them would gurantee a successful hit on Abu Dhabi's power station. The missile is simple, cheap and efficient. In a few years the accuracy of these missiles would become much better.
The only way you can beat the US in their own game is if you spend the same money as them and have what they have, which is impossible.
Iran isn't looking to beat the US. Iran is trying to make any potential war more costly than they would want and that is the perfect strategy and the only strategy.
Final thought: take Saudi Arabia, would they last more than a week against the Americans? Absolutely not. So what was the point of that 10-15 % annual budget?
