If you read the entire statement he explicitely talks about fighter-bombers and their expanded long-range missile capability. Iran trained Hezbollah to be their suicide bombing (of all kinds) proxy against Israel. The Israelis have pretty much reduced their capability to launching rockets from Lebanon and Gaza. So air and missiles are the only options they really have. And as you point out, air is a non-starter.
Don't be so sure. MiG wise, yea, suicide. UAV, on the other hand. Iran's proxy Hezbollah managed to disable an Izzie boat with a UAV. That is worrisome because it shows adaptiveness and a bit of technology. Yea, the first generation isn't impressive. But imagine a swarm of scramjet/ramjet/whatever cheap UAV's with a mild touch of onboard intelligence. Smart Katyushas. Wouldn't even need a payload if the birds were fast enough. Some folks have been wondering why Iran is so interested its domestic ramjet production.
The worst-case scenario for Iran's retaliation I was reading of didn't even depend on the Sunburns, it was in the form of launching hundreds of Exocets to nail defenseless tankers in the Straits, turning them to flaming hazards to navigation and basically shutting the whole thing down.
They probably have lots of Exocets. A Sunburn can hurt a US Navy vessel bad, but one or two Exocets would turn a tanker into floating hell.
But yes, those Sunburns are scary. Mach-3 at wave level, jink back and forth on approach, then pop up and slam down through the deck, avoiding the side armor. Ouch. That would end a carrier's flight operations with probably lots of casualties.
As far as I know, Iran licensed the technology and builds their own. Far cheaper than importing. So, yes. It'd be safe to assume they'll have sufficient numbers to cause a lot of damage. The Exocets are a reliable workhorse, but we have the capabilities to deal with them relatively easily enough. Sunburns in sufficient clusters, we do not.
