Iran
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 740
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From: Nottinghamshire
Since the start of the conflict a possibly joint US/Israeli Number Station has appeared on shortwave. Such a Number Station will be used to send messages to anti-Iranian regime groups/agents. It took a while for the Iranians to act on the transmissions and they are now jamming the frequencies. The Iranians are using the same bubble jammers as they use against news radio stations beamed into Iran.
The Iranians are currently playing Whack-a-Mole trying to jam the number station frequencies
The Iranians are currently playing Whack-a-Mole trying to jam the number station frequencies
Ok, let's be more helpful - here's the link.
Twente SDR
Joined: Feb 2006
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From: Falling off the end of the thread
If 'the internet' is cutoff a VPN won't help you. Internet access is controlled by telcos, they can disconnect their
networks at will. In this case, on the orders of the government or IRGC. You access a VPN by downloading
the relevant app and paying for the subscription. VPN subscriptions are expensive anywhere, not just in Iran.
networks at will. In this case, on the orders of the government or IRGC. You access a VPN by downloading
the relevant app and paying for the subscription. VPN subscriptions are expensive anywhere, not just in Iran.
Joined: Aug 2009
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From: Texas
From the New York Times
I wonder how expensive the life insurance premium has become for someone in that position.
Live Updates:
Iran Says It’s Close to Naming New Supreme Leader as Attacks on Infrastructure Grow
Iranian state media reported that top clerics were finalizing their decision on a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel and Iran appeared to be ramping up attacks on infrastructure targets.
Iran Says It’s Close to Naming New Supreme Leader as Attacks on Infrastructure Grow
Iranian state media reported that top clerics were finalizing their decision on a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel and Iran appeared to be ramping up attacks on infrastructure targets.
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From: surfing, watching for sharks
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From: florida
he heh, well now, do not forget we are dealing with a theocracy form of govmnt, not a typical authoritarian or dictatorship or even
royalty type thing.
Its true believers have demonstrated suicide attacks, so if the new leader is of the ultimate faith, life insurance may not be a player except if bought by a distant cousin, maybe of lesser faith.
Gums sends...
royalty type thing.
Its true believers have demonstrated suicide attacks, so if the new leader is of the ultimate faith, life insurance may not be a player except if bought by a distant cousin, maybe of lesser faith.
Gums sends...
Thread Starter
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Joined: Jul 2000
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From: Peripatetic
The Times:
Iran signals Ayatollah’s son will be new supreme leader in blow to peace
The reported appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s next supreme leader signals that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps maintains its iron grip over the country, dashing hopes of accommodation with the West.
The apparent elevation of Khamenei, 56, points to the promotion of securitarianism over clerical authority, making the regime’s acceptance of President Trump’s demands ever more unlikely.
The second son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is well versed in the business of internal repression, having taken control of the Basij, the Revolutionary Guard’s volunteer militia, during the 2009 anti-government protests which ended the reformist Green Movement and what existed of mainstream opposition within Iran.
Critically, his ascension would solidify Iran’s intentions not to bow to western demands, signalling the grip the Guards enjoy and heralding an increasingly militarised future for the regime.
His election would also indicate continuity with his father’s rule despite undermining a key pillar of the 1979 Islamic revolution: the rejection of the hereditary principle of monarchy that the overthrow of the Shah embodied.
Opposition to the hereditary principle has been a key factor in justifying the concentration of powers akin to an absolute monarchy in the hands of one individual. The late Ali Khamenei argued that one of the revolution’s greatest achievements “was the destruction of a structure which was based on a cruel and unreasonable hereditary monarchy”.
“This old and derelict structure was a wrong and unreasonable tradition that dominated our country for several thousand years,” he argued.
But with the regime in survival mode, the calculus has changed to choosing as supreme leader an individual who, if lacking in high-level theological qualifications, could continue the republic’s self-defining resistance to the West.….
The reported appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s next supreme leader signals that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps maintains its iron grip over the country, dashing hopes of accommodation with the West.
The apparent elevation of Khamenei, 56, points to the promotion of securitarianism over clerical authority, making the regime’s acceptance of President Trump’s demands ever more unlikely.
The second son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is well versed in the business of internal repression, having taken control of the Basij, the Revolutionary Guard’s volunteer militia, during the 2009 anti-government protests which ended the reformist Green Movement and what existed of mainstream opposition within Iran.
Critically, his ascension would solidify Iran’s intentions not to bow to western demands, signalling the grip the Guards enjoy and heralding an increasingly militarised future for the regime.
His election would also indicate continuity with his father’s rule despite undermining a key pillar of the 1979 Islamic revolution: the rejection of the hereditary principle of monarchy that the overthrow of the Shah embodied.
Opposition to the hereditary principle has been a key factor in justifying the concentration of powers akin to an absolute monarchy in the hands of one individual. The late Ali Khamenei argued that one of the revolution’s greatest achievements “was the destruction of a structure which was based on a cruel and unreasonable hereditary monarchy”.
“This old and derelict structure was a wrong and unreasonable tradition that dominated our country for several thousand years,” he argued.
But with the regime in survival mode, the calculus has changed to choosing as supreme leader an individual who, if lacking in high-level theological qualifications, could continue the republic’s self-defining resistance to the West.….
Last edited by ORAC; 8th March 2026 at 21:38.
Joined: Dec 2004
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From: Cluedo
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 3,787
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From: Baston
D Tel this evening has crude at $111 barrel and likely much more.
Surely at these prices the tankers will be incentivised to dare the Hormuz run? At some stage greed overcomes caution.
Meanwhile fill your car and fix a price with your fuel provider if a deal is still available.
Surely at these prices the tankers will be incentivised to dare the Hormuz run? At some stage greed overcomes caution.
Meanwhile fill your car and fix a price with your fuel provider if a deal is still available.
Joined: Oct 2022
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From: Snepal
he heh, well now, do not forget we are dealing with a theocracy form of govmnt, not a typical authoritarian or dictatorship or even
royalty type thing.
Its true believers have demonstrated suicide attacks, so if the new leader is of the ultimate faith, life insurance may not be a player except if bought by a distant cousin, maybe of lesser faith.
Gums sends...
royalty type thing.
Its true believers have demonstrated suicide attacks, so if the new leader is of the ultimate faith, life insurance may not be a player except if bought by a distant cousin, maybe of lesser faith.
Gums sends...
Joined: Nov 2004
Aviation Qualifications: ATCO
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From: UK
It is widely reported that more than 200 tankers (non-sanctioned) are now at anchor either side of the straits of Hormuz. There are few, if any, reports of those vessels being targeted by the Iranians. Does this infer that the prosecution of targets (launch sites, storage/manufacturing facilities etc) from the air has been largely successful?
Joined: Jun 2009
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From: florida
Only one country in this conflict has a theocracy form of government. But this one seems to be the only goverment whereby the religion RULES absolutely, and has sworn to eliminate all the rest of us, even if it perishes doing so.
I have flown with and learned with and taught pilots of their religion. But the version now implemented in this one country that the world now deals with is a singular unpleasant, diabolical mutation. A crying shame. I never encountered that attitude in any of my dealings with those folks. Not even close. But it now exists and the world must deal with it. It's the reason we even have this debacle, as its leadership wishes to extinguish all the "infidels" on this planet and that includes most of us here.
Gums sends..
I have flown with and learned with and taught pilots of their religion. But the version now implemented in this one country that the world now deals with is a singular unpleasant, diabolical mutation. A crying shame. I never encountered that attitude in any of my dealings with those folks. Not even close. But it now exists and the world must deal with it. It's the reason we even have this debacle, as its leadership wishes to extinguish all the "infidels" on this planet and that includes most of us here.
Gums sends..
Joined: Mar 2008
Aviation Qualifications: Spotter
Posts: 1,811
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From: London
It is widely reported that more than 200 tankers (non-sanctioned) are now at anchor either side of the straits of Hormuz. There are few, if any, reports of those vessels being targeted by the Iranians. Does this infer that the prosecution of targets (launch sites, storage/manufacturing facilities etc) from the air has been largely successful?
A fella from Lloyds of London said its likely additional insurance would be required if the US Navy escorted them through, for fairly obvious reasons. On which note i did read that the Iranians were goading the USN to try and make a run through the Straights.
Last edited by Senior Pilot; 9th March 2026 at 09:07. Reason: This is the Mil Forum, not JetBlast. Garbage removed
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From: The South
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From: London
Joined: Apr 2006
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From: UK
If the Israeli/USA coalition destroys the Iranian's oil industry then they might decide that as they can't export their oil to China then they might as well mine the Strait of Hormuz.
Thread Starter
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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From: Peripatetic
..................
Video
Video
An Iranian attack drone hit the BAPCO refinery in Bahrain this morning, starting a large fire.
Thread Starter
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Joined: Jul 2000
Aviation Qualifications: Spotter
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From: Peripatetic
..............
Satellite imagery shows multiple destroyed buildings at Badr Air Force base, Esfahan in Iran.
Use the slider to compare here: http://tinyurl.com/y9fny9u2
Use the slider to compare here: http://tinyurl.com/y9fny9u2
Thread Starter
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Joined: Jul 2000
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From: Peripatetic
............
MizarVision: https://www.mizarvision.com
BREAKING: A Chinese AI startup called MizarVision is publishing high-resolution satellite imagery of every US military base, every carrier strike group, every F-22 deployment, every THAAD battery, and every Patriot missile position in the Middle East.
Labelled. Geolocated. AI-annotated. Updated in near-realtime. Shared by PLA-linked accounts and Chinese state media to an audience of billions.
The first major release came on 20 February, eight days before Operation Epic Fury began. MizarVision published images showing US aircraft transfers to Ovda Airbase in southern Israel, fighter deployments across Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and naval buildups in the Arabian Sea.
By 1 March, the releases had expanded to include detailed imagery of bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE, with AI labelling identifying specific aircraft types, air defence configurations, and troop concentrations. One release catalogued approximately 2,500 individual US military assets across the region.
The imagery comes from two sources.
The first is China’s Jilin-1 satellite constellation, a network of over 100 commercial Earth observation satellites operated by Chang Guang Satellite Technology, whose data is used by the PLA. A majority of Jilin-1 satellites are dedicated to regional imaging with sub-metre resolution, capable of identifying individual aircraft on tarmacs and distinguishing between THAAD and Patriot battery configurations from orbit.
The second source is commercially available Western satellite data from providers like Maxar and Airbus, which MizarVision aggregates, processes through proprietary AI models for automatic target recognition, and republishes with military-grade labelling that transforms raw imagery into actionable intelligence products.
The Pentagon has downplayed the releases as “open-source.” This framing misses the point entirely.
The value of MizarVision’s output is not the raw satellite image. Any government can purchase commercial satellite passes. The value is the AI processing layer that converts terabytes of imagery into labelled, searchable, cross-referenced intelligence products at a speed and scale that previously required the resources of a national intelligence agency. MizarVision is democratising military surveillance and publishing the output on social media where Iran’s 31 autonomous IRGC provincial commands can access it from a mobile phone.
No direct evidence confirms classified data transmission from Beijing to Tehran. But the distinction between “classified” and “publicly shared AI-processed satellite intelligence identifying every US military asset in the Middle East by type, location, and configuration” is a distinction without a meaningful difference to a provincial IRGC commander selecting his next target.
The strategic implications extend far beyond this conflict.
In the 2022 Ukraine war, Maxar’s commercial satellite imagery aided Kyiv by exposing Russian deployments. The West celebrated it as the democratisation of intelligence. China has now executed the identical playbook in reverse: a nominally commercial firm, with documented PLA data-sharing arrangements, publishing intelligence products that expose American deployments during an active war.
The precedent is set. Commercial satellite intelligence is now a weapon of great-power competition deployed through AI startups with plausible commercial deniability.
MizarVision has fewer than 200 employees. Its AI models run on commercially available hardware. Its satellite data comes from constellations any nation can build. And it has just demonstrated the capability to map every US military asset across an entire theatre of war and publish the results on the open internet before the first bomb falls.
The next war will not begin with a missile launch. It will begin with an AI model labelling every target from orbit.....
Labelled. Geolocated. AI-annotated. Updated in near-realtime. Shared by PLA-linked accounts and Chinese state media to an audience of billions.
The first major release came on 20 February, eight days before Operation Epic Fury began. MizarVision published images showing US aircraft transfers to Ovda Airbase in southern Israel, fighter deployments across Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and naval buildups in the Arabian Sea.
By 1 March, the releases had expanded to include detailed imagery of bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the UAE, with AI labelling identifying specific aircraft types, air defence configurations, and troop concentrations. One release catalogued approximately 2,500 individual US military assets across the region.
The imagery comes from two sources.
The first is China’s Jilin-1 satellite constellation, a network of over 100 commercial Earth observation satellites operated by Chang Guang Satellite Technology, whose data is used by the PLA. A majority of Jilin-1 satellites are dedicated to regional imaging with sub-metre resolution, capable of identifying individual aircraft on tarmacs and distinguishing between THAAD and Patriot battery configurations from orbit.
The second source is commercially available Western satellite data from providers like Maxar and Airbus, which MizarVision aggregates, processes through proprietary AI models for automatic target recognition, and republishes with military-grade labelling that transforms raw imagery into actionable intelligence products.
The Pentagon has downplayed the releases as “open-source.” This framing misses the point entirely.
The value of MizarVision’s output is not the raw satellite image. Any government can purchase commercial satellite passes. The value is the AI processing layer that converts terabytes of imagery into labelled, searchable, cross-referenced intelligence products at a speed and scale that previously required the resources of a national intelligence agency. MizarVision is democratising military surveillance and publishing the output on social media where Iran’s 31 autonomous IRGC provincial commands can access it from a mobile phone.
No direct evidence confirms classified data transmission from Beijing to Tehran. But the distinction between “classified” and “publicly shared AI-processed satellite intelligence identifying every US military asset in the Middle East by type, location, and configuration” is a distinction without a meaningful difference to a provincial IRGC commander selecting his next target.
The strategic implications extend far beyond this conflict.
In the 2022 Ukraine war, Maxar’s commercial satellite imagery aided Kyiv by exposing Russian deployments. The West celebrated it as the democratisation of intelligence. China has now executed the identical playbook in reverse: a nominally commercial firm, with documented PLA data-sharing arrangements, publishing intelligence products that expose American deployments during an active war.
The precedent is set. Commercial satellite intelligence is now a weapon of great-power competition deployed through AI startups with plausible commercial deniability.
MizarVision has fewer than 200 employees. Its AI models run on commercially available hardware. Its satellite data comes from constellations any nation can build. And it has just demonstrated the capability to map every US military asset across an entire theatre of war and publish the results on the open internet before the first bomb falls.
The next war will not begin with a missile launch. It will begin with an AI model labelling every target from orbit.....