---

Are US aircraft flying from any other European base other than the UK? If not then Starmer's agreement to do so is flawed imo.

---

---

Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to return to Crete next week, sources say

The American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford which is currently deployed in the Middle East amid the US and Israeli war on Iran is expected to return to NATO’s naval base on Crete next week, Kathimerini understands.

The ship will return for refueling, but possibly also for an investigation into the large fire that broke out aboard the vessel on March 12, according to a source.

The New York Tines reported that the fire started in the ship’s main laundry area on Thursday. By the time it was over, more than 600 sailors and crew members had lost their beds and have since been bunking down on floors and tables, officials said.

The aircraft carrier is now entering its 10th month of deployment, the report said, adding that crew members have been told that their deployment will probably be extended into May, which would put them at an entire year at sea, twice the length of a normal aircraft carrier deployment.

Kathimerini understands that one scenario being examined is that the blaze may have been deliberately caused by crew members to terminate their extended mission.

The vessel spent four days at the Souda Bay base on Crete last February resupplying, before heading for the eastern Mediterranean.

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

https://x.com/IranIntl_En/status/203...860063193?s=20

---

---

​​​​​​​Around 300 Basij commanders and field officials were killed in a wave of overnight strikes on key command and operational centers of Iran’s Basij forces, Iran International has learned.

The strikes appeared to hit the logistics and command structure of a force long used to suppress dissent and confront anti-government protests.

In one of the most critical attacks, a Basij support unit’s repair and maintenance center was hit. The site housed hundreds of vehicles and motorcycles used in street operations and neighborhood patrols. Initial reports said the fleet was destroyed.

Facilities linked to the Mohammad Rasoulollah Corps, the IRGC unit responsible for the greater Tehran area, were struck.

The Imam Hadi security unit, a strategic command center in Tehran, was also heavily damaged.

The Imam Ali security battalions, which have played a central role in cracking down on protests, also suffered heavy personnel and equipment losses.

​​​​​​​https://www.iranintl.com/en/202603175489

---

---

---

---

---

---

https://x.com/EGYOSINT/status/2033863441853616304?s=20

---

---

​​​​​​​High resolution satellite imagery obtained via @SoarAtlas shows extensive damage to Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE following recent Iranian drone and missile strikes.

Several American aircraft/drone shelters, hangars, warehouses, and troop barracks were hit, some sustaining heavy damage and others completely destroyed.

A hangar used by the UAE Air Force to house Saab GlobalEye AEW&C aircraft has also been confirmed to be severely damaged.

---

---

---

---

In one of the most critical attacks, a Basij support unit’s repair and maintenance center was hit. The site housed hundreds of vehicles and motorcycles used in street operations and neighborhood patrols. Initial reports said the fleet was destroyed.

---

---

https://x.com/TheMilObserverr/status...952701218?s=20

---

---

​​​​​​​Reports claim UAE has lost a Saab GlobalEye AEW&C aircraft, one of its most advanced and expensive surveillance platforms (valued at ~$400-500M each) destroyed by an Iranian kamikaze drone strike at Al Dhafra Air Base.

---

---

---

---

We need a tote board of friendly losses. Not to gloat but to demonstrate to Trump what a folly this war is.
That's one 1.5 Billion radar installation, 3 x F15's. 1 x KC Tanker and now an AWACS. That's a lot of dollars.
Drones are going to kill us. Putin might be our saviour as they have inadvertently trained Ukraine how use and deal with them.

---

---

---

---

---

---

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Riper_USMC.jpgLt. Gen. Paul Van RiperRed, commanded by retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, adopted an asymmetric strategy, in particular, simulating using old methods to evade Blue's sophisticated electronic surveillance network. Van Riper simulated using motorcycle messengers to transmit orders to front-line troops and World-War-II-style light signals to launch airplanes without radio communications in the model.

Red received an ultimatum from Blue, essentially a surrender document, demanding a response within 24 hours. Thus warned of Blue's approach, Red used a fleet of small boats to determine the position of Blue's fleet by the second day of the exercise. In a preemptive strike, Red launched a massive salvo of cruise missiles that overwhelmed the Blue forces' electronic sensors and destroyed sixteen warships: one aircraft carrier, ten cruisers and five of Blue's six amphibious ships. An equivalent success in a real conflict would have resulted in the deaths of over 20,000 service personnel. Soon after the cruise missile offensive, another significant portion of Blue's navy was "sunk" by an armada of small Red boats, which carried out both conventional and suicide attacks that capitalized on Blue's inability to detect them as well as expected.

---

---

The message appeared in English on Emanuel Fabian’s phone.
“You have 90 minutes left to update the lie,” said a WhatsApp message reviewed by The Washington Post. “If you do this — you solve in a minute the most serious problem you have caused yourself in life. And you won’t remember me anymore in a week.”

Five days earlier, Fabian, a 28-year-old war correspondent at the Times of Israel newspaper, had published a short blog post reporting that an Iranian missile had struck an open area outside a Jerusalem suburb, harming no one.

Until he began to receive messages that threatened his life and family, Fabian didn’t know his brief report had triggered a dispute over bets on the prediction market Polymarket on whether an Iranian missile would strike Israel on March 10.

For those with money down, millions of dollars were potentially riding on his blog post. Fabian was spooked enough by the threats to at least entertain the idea of revising his published reporting, he told The Post in a phone interview Monday. That could score a win for Polymarket users who had bet against a missile strike occurring that day — and at least one had offered to send Fabian a share of the profits.
Instead, he stood by his post, reported the threats to the police and wrote an article for the Times of Israel chronicling the harrowing experience. Fabian said he decided to publicize the story in the hope that “anyone who’s ever thinking about threatening a journalist will maybe think twice.”

---

---

---

---

---

---

USS Gerald R. Ford Headed to Souda Bay for Repairs After Fire

Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is preparing to leave the Red Sea to undergo repairs at the U.S. Navy base on Crete after a fire last week required several hours of damage control efforts, USNI News has learned.

Ford will travel to Naval Support Activity Souda Bay for more than a week of pierside repairs, a senior U.S. official confirmed to USNI News on Tuesday. The official confirmed a report in a local Greek news outlet that said Ford is returning to Crete.

The March 12 fire, which occurred in the aft laundry facility, resulted in a major damage control response that displaced sailors across the carrier and disrupted operations throughout the ship, the source confirmed to USNI News.

One sailor was medically evacuated from the carrier after being injured in the damage control effort and is in stable condition, while two others were treated for lacerations, another official told USNI News. More than 200 sailors were treated for smoke inhalation and returned to duty, two sources familiar with the fire response told USNI News.

“Ship’s force is inspecting and overhauling affected spaces, and the cause of the fire is under investigation,” a spokesperson for U.S. 5th Fleet told USNI News in a statement. “The ship continues to operate in the Red Sea, accomplishing U.S. Central Command tasking in support of Operation Epic Fury.”

The smoke damage extended to the berthing, requiring the Navy to take 1,000 mattresses off the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN-79) in Norfolk, Va., over the weekend to send to Ford, USNI News understands. The Navy has also collected almost 2,000 sweatsuits and other clothing items to distribute to the crew because many sailors are unable to clean their clothes with most of the laundry services out of commission, a source confirmed to USNI News.

“Due to the fire, several berthing spaces and subsequently, more than 100 racks (beds) were lost,” a Pentagon spokesperson told USNI News in a statement. “An immediate plan to acquire replacement cots has already been established. The resiliency and mental grit of our Sailors has enabled USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) to support ongoing operations.”

Initial communications about the fire suggested that Ford would need depot-level repairs, USNI News understands.……

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---