2026 Israeli–United States strikes on Iran and elsewhere in region - News and Discussion

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U.S. officials caution that these communications may be used by Iranian forces to verify vessel identity, cargo, ownership, or destination—or potentially improve targeting accuracy for missile or drone attacks. Ships encountering such communications are urged to immediately report the incident to NAVCENT NCAGS and maintain close coordination with coalition naval forces operating in the region.
Interesting. Home-on-Com (HoC).
 

At a Thursday press briefing, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed operational updates as the conflict stretches into its third week, revealing that A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft are "now in the fight."

-Air Force A-10 Thundebolt II attack aircraft, commonly called Warthogs, are now chasing Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz.

-US forces are attempting to reopen the strait as Iran disrupts crude oil shipping through the critical waterway.

-The Air Force has been pushing the retirement of the Warthog, deeming the aircraft obsolete for a war with China.
A-10 are exactly what is needed here. SUAS, UAS, Fast attack boats, Warthog can take it all.
 
I smell bullshit just looking at it. @lancer21 how about checking your sources before spewing that kind of iranian bullshit in that thread ? thank you in advance.

More pointedly : F-35 get a technical problem. Iran claims to have damaged it, because, well, propaganda.
CNN confirmed an F-35 that sustained "some kind" of enemy fire just landed back. The video looks BS however. You are right.

Let´s clear our mind now, the way this campaign has been run raises many thousands questions despite its firmly established goal. OPSEC, Compromised secured COMS, lazy AI-driven unchecked intelligence collections, Disappearing AFRL official etc... Perhaps we should not be surprised we are here today with that F-35. But let´s remind how preventive the downing of that F-117 was back in the days over Serbia*. There is probably not much more here so see than failed protocols, bad habits or lack of critical thinking (w/o discarding urgency and commitment to execute and protect despite the odds**!).

*while the Wobblin´s Goblin is still damning every IADS put against it today
** i.e... bravery
 
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In particular sulphur, a vital upstream input in the extraction of critical minerals including copper and cobalt, has seen a “near total” disruption of seaborne trade in the straits, which makes up half the world’s total shipments.
It’s “a cascading issue” raising the possibility that a “knock-on effect of this war is that it may cost double or more than double to replace all these weapons because all the mineral demand is going to go way up”.
According to a separate February analysis, also co-written by Matisek, only 6% of US defense contractors have fully transparent supply chains. In the newer report, he and his co-authors write that this has now resulted in a military effort constrained by “upstream conditions it cannot control and a US joint force discovering that its combat endurance is capped by the invisible industrial foundations needed to replenish it”.
 
Sandboxx has uploaded a video concerning this alleged SAM hit against an F-35:


New footage released online allegedly shows an American F-35 being hit by what may be an Iranian surface to air missile. The footage has not been verified and, but coincides with confirmed reports of a U.S. Air Force F-35A being forced to make an emergency landing somewhere in the Middle East.​
 
Well, the video looks detailed enough, and quite persuasive. I suspect a close SAM burst with some fragment damage on F-35 engine (looks like fuel is leaking):

View attachment 806001

Lots of people online are calling this fake or AI. Now it could be...its hard to tell these days, but.... it doesn't look that far removed from the Houthi (in reality IRGC) hit on a Saudi F-15S over Yemen back in 2018 using a surface launched AA-10 Alamo IR...and that predates AI usage....

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSrh7GWtoR0
 

The U.S. and its allies have intensified the battle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, sending low-flying attack jets over the sea lanes to blast Iranian naval vessels and Apache helicopters to shoot down Iran’s deadly drones, American military officials said.

The stepped-up operation is part of a multistage Pentagon plan to reduce the danger from Iranian armed boats, mines and cruise missiles, which have halted ship traffic through the waterway since early March. If the danger can be reduced, the U.S. could send U.S. warships through the strait and eventually escort vessels in and out of the Persian Gulf.

[snip]

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Iran says it has the right to respond to UK “aggression” over Britain’s decision to allow US forces to use its military bases.

Tehran’s foreign minister accused Britain of “participation” in the war and demanded it withdraw support for the “United States and the Zionist regime”.

“These actions will definitely be considered as participation in aggression and will be recorded in the history of relations between the two countries,” Abbas Araghchi told Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, according to a Telegram post.

“At the same time, we reserve our inherent right to defend the country’s sovereignty and independence.”

The UK has given permission for the US to use British bases, including Diego Garcia and RAF Fairford, for defensive strikes on Iranian facilities, but has not taken part in any direct attacks.

Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, had previously denied the US use of UK bases but later changed his stance.

Iran has already targeted British bases across the Middle East, including a coalition air base in Erbil, northern Iraq, and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.

The Telegraph has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.
 

Footage from Russian state broadcaster RT has captured the moment a missile lands just a few feet from where its reporter was broadcasting in southern Lebanon.

RT, formerly Russia Today, said Steve Sweeney, its Lebanon bureau chief, and his cameraman had "miraculously survived" and were being treated in hospital.

The BBC has verified the footage.
 
Investigators said the suspect, a 26-year-old from Jerusalem, had been in contact with Iranian intelligence officials for several months and carried out various security-related tasks at their direction, such as identifying associates of Knesset members and distressed individuals willing to commit murders for Iran

Without paywall:
 
Paul Krugman interviewing Robin Brooks on the economics of the conflict. Krugman, of course, is the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences winner (among many other things) and Brooks is a Ph.D. in economics currently at the Brookings Institution with (very) relevant experience in the energy sector and sanctions levied on Russia.

The discussion is very wide ranging and pretty dispassionate in a manner that economists stereotypically are. As it most directly pertains to the conflict, Brooks argues that (from the U.S./Israeli perspective) beyond 1) the conflict being escalated to force an outcome and 2) the U.S. declaring some sort of victory and ceasing large scale hostilities for the time being there's a third unexplored avenue of exerting pressure and steering global security megatrends i.e. an oil embargo.

This would entail physically stopping tankers with Iranian oil, starving the regime of income. He seems to argue that the additional supply shock this would cause is already largely baked in what is already being experienced due to the war. Presumably the tankers could be interdicted outside the immediate conflict area.

In Brooks' view the effects of sanctions are preferable to those of war and that a lot of lessons can be learned from mistakes made in sanctioning Russia i.e. avoiding complex structures and imposing a very straightforward embargo. Brooks develops and expands on his idea on his Substack page

View: https://youtu.be/bdrQJO_-j9s
 
Alright these two and then sleepy time:

NATO withdraws from Iraq amidst war in Iran.
BRUSSELS, March 20 (Reuters) - NATO has withdrawn all of its troops from an advisory mission in Iraq, the military ‌alliance said on Friday, as the repercussions of the Iran war spread across the Middle East.
"I would like to thank the Republic of Iraq and all the Allies who assisted in the safe relocation of ⁠NATO personnel from Iraq," U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in a statement.

And this
View: https://x.com/i/status/2035052116805304655
 
Twenty Four hours after and its already pure chaos (parody warning)

 
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