Looks like the war with Iran is cooking off

[EndtheMadnessNow]

US Navy struck three Iranian vessels in the Persian Gulf: two anchored off Bandar Lengeh, including the Haj Qasem, and one at Bandar Kong. Three IRGC patrol boats were sheltering among cargo vessels at Bandar Lengeh and were also struck multiple times, with secondary detonations reported.


Footage shows an Iranian ship destroyed at Bandar e Lengeh port in Hormozgan Province in the Persian Gulf, possibly the Qasem Soleimani, a Shahid Soleimani-class missile corvette warship.
https://x.com/Osint613/status/2030970550856655046



Trump Tells Ships to ‘Show Some Guts’ in Hormuz as Seafarer Death Toll Rises

Well, that may be true but, you don’t need a navy to launch a swarm of Shahed drones from shore to destroy the bridge of a defenseless oil tanker.

This may help: The Israeli Air Force bombed the drone headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military says, as part of a wave of strikes on dozens of regime targets across Iran. As part of the strikes, the IDF says it hit a "central headquarters" of the IRGC, which was "responsible for launching unmanned aerial vehicles."


Rubio realizing that he has to sail an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz.




Here's a great point about the difference between "seapower" (1 word) and "sea power" (2 words) or maybe "$ea power."

Seapower is military power.

"$ea power" is the ability to have commercial trade.

The main purpose of the Navy is to protect shipping lanes and allow commerce to flow on the high seas. This was the reason the US created a Navy in the early 1800s: to fend off piracy and allow trade.

The Navy seems to have forgotten about "sea power" and only thinks in terms of "seapower." Maybe if they had attended conferences like this over the last few years, they would have better understood "$ea power" and not been surprised by the insurance companies pulling back effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz.


Every US Navy officer reads and or is steered to Mahan's Sea Power book. But they don't actually read it. They read the first chapter and are influenced on the idea of decisive battle. Bringing fleet-on-fleet battle against each other.
"Planning Armageddon" if you want to understand maritime naval warfare. How the British planned for economic warfare before WWI. It's all about trade & commerce.
"The Neptune factor" - the concept of $ea Power.


Here's a historical data perspective on how Gulf War III compares in terms of disruption size and available spare capacity.


Gulf War III Is by Far the Largest Oil Disruption in History and Has Zeroed Out Spare Capacity


Everyone’s obsessed with oil but the food production and fertilizer commodities that go through the Strait of Hormuz are very significant.




An Iranian attack drone hit the Erbil observatory on top of Mount Korek in Kurdistan Region, Iraq tonight. Second time Iran has destroyed this observatory. First was in 1985 during Iran-Iraq war. Many observatories are Dual-Use Technology, one for astronomers and one for military.




Diego Garcia and the zombie Chagos Deal that seems to never die...


New article out that lays out the risks to US interests if the UK government goes forward with a highly flawed deal. That deal would cede sovereignty of the Chagos to Mauritius - a country heavily influenced by and invested in with China, a US adversary.

See the article here for the specifics, but still unanswered is why UK and some well placed US policy makers continue to support a nonsensical deal.


We had a good thing, Britain.

A really good thing.

You taught us this game. Mahan studied you. We just wrote bigger checks. The deal was simple. We spend the trillions. Fight the hard wars. We even let you sit out Vietnam. And you? You hold the chokepoints you already own. You run Lloyd’s. Ships in the narrows, insurance on the hulls.

That’s all you had to do and we would back your interests with the strongest military and financial markets in the world. That was the deal.

Now look at you.

You gave up Aden. Fine. You kept Diego Garcia so we could reach it with bombers. Now you’re giving that away too. To a Chinese client state.

You built Israel to guard Suez. Now your Foreign Secretary threatens to arrest their PM.

You built a base nearby to back it up. Iran hit your base in Cyprus. You didn’t have one warship in the Mediterranean. Spain got there first. Spain.

You gave up Hong Kong but backed Taiwan. Now you’re letting China build the largest embassy in Europe on top of London’s fiber-optic cables. We gave you Five Eyes. You gave Beijing a SIGINT platform in the heart of the City.

Gibraltar. Three hundred years. Actual sieges. Now the Spanish run your border checks.

You lost South Africa but kept the Falklands so we can overfly the Magellan Strait. Argentina could probably take that with rowboats today.

Your king kept ownership of the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand navies to fill the gaps. Those navies are now a laughing stock.

Your warships and bombers patrolled the GIUK gap. Now you don’t have enough but you also don’t want us buying Greenland. Fine. You do it. With what?

We gave London the International Maritime Organization to regulate shipping, you backed the EU agenda to carbon tax every ship to build woke UN slush fund. 

Iran effectively closed Hormuz. In the ‘80s, 540 ships got hit. Lloyd’s never blinked. Because your navy was there. Now Lloyd’s cancels. Because it isn’t.

You scrapped your only amphibious ships. Sold them. To Brazil. You have more admirals than warships.

You built two light carriers but they keep springing leaks and you don’t have enough escort ships to support them.

The English Channel. Stopped Napoleon. Stopped Hitler. Now you can’t stop rubber dinghies.

You had one job.

Have the warships, diplomatic backbone and insurance to support shipping through the straits.

That’s it. That’s all we asked.

And you blew it. Chokepoint by chokepoint. Called it progress.

Now hundreds of ships are stuck in the Persian Gulf and the world is blaming us.

But that’s ok. All those solar panels you bought from China will keep you warm in that dreary weather I guess.




Footage of a United Arab Emirates Air Force F-16E engaging an Iranian attack drone at low level over Al Mamzar Beach. Missile fired near the Dubai International Airport.
https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/2031063148933881915

Longer vid (just a normal day on the beach!):
https://x.com/mhmiranusa/status/2031070967523311753


Three more badass BUFFs from Minot AFB North Dakota have now arrived in England at RAF Fairford.
Hooky21 "Bomber Barons"
Hooky22 "Iron Butterfly"
Hooky23 "Guardians of the Upper Realm"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5x-lzJTDDs

There's also 8 Dark Knights on the ground at RAF Fairford, according to the aviation Randos. Total 11 bombers. Sounds like a massive strike package will soon be delivered to Iran.

B-1B 85-0064 #AE6BD3 (DY) "Eliminator"
B-1B 85-0088 #AE6BE1 (DY) (No nickname identified)
B-1B 86-0107 #AE6BEF (WA) "Dragon Slayer"
B-1B 86-0140 #AE6C0B (DY) "Last Lance"
B-1B 86-0120 #AE6BFA (EL) "Whiskey Pete"
B-1B 86-0121 #AE6BFB (EL) "Symphony of Destruction"
B-1B 86-0139 #AE6C0A (EL) "Drifter"
B-1B 86-0108 #AE6BF0 (EL) "Aliens with an Attitude"


French sailors sing national anthem La Marseillaise in the hanger deck of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle with Macron as the French Navy prepares to expand its escort mission in the Middle East.
https://x.com/Tom_Antonov/status/2031099689488064831


President Trump Holds a Press Conference, Mar. 9, 2026



Trump on Iran: "We’re going to go further... We're ahead of our initial timeline by a lot."
Trump says he is disappointed in the "election" of the new Ayatollah.
Confirms that he wants the Iran regime change operation to look like the Maduro operation in Venezuela.
Trump says his baseline win condition is that Iran no longer has the capability "for a long time" to hit the US, Israel, or any allies in the region.
US has struck over 5,000 targets in Iran.

Trump says he ordered 25 more B-2 bombers.? I think he met Northrop Grumman B-21 Raiders as he added, "newer, better version."

Trump on American casualties: Says the parents of killed soldiers told him to finish the job.

Trump says the Strait of Hormuz "doesn’t really pertain to us" as so much as it does with China and other countries.

Note all these statements were made after Wall Street closed for the day. While the market was still open, Trump said, "I think the war is very complete, pretty much."