@AriFleischer Curious to hear which E European countries have opened their base to US planes, as at Fairford and Diego Garcia, and which ones are currently shooting down drones over the GCC. Might have missed it.
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Shashank Joshi
270 posts
Shashank Joshi
@shashj
Defence editor @TheEconomist, Visiting fellow @warstudies KCL. Signal: shashank.96. Speaking engagements: https://t.co/8V3SSBwUYe
London Katılım Kasım 2008
1.7K Takip Edilen232.3K Takipçiler
When this is over, the western part of NATO will never be the same. Spain, England, France and Italy have sold us out, as they too often have a history of doing. Eastern European nations are the heart of NATO. They spend money on defense, know how to fight and love the US.
France particularly deserves fault and blame. From supporting China and Russia at the UN to denying Americans overflight rights, they’re doing what they’ve always done - showing weakness, while cutting deals with terrorists. (The reason the US has a Marine Corps and Navy is unlike France, we refused to pay a ransom to the Barbary Pirates. France is always happy to cut a deal.)
Wars have unintended consequences as nations show their true colors.
NATO will never be the same, and Western European weakness and acquiescence is the cause.
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Shashank Joshi retweetledi
Two attacks in this morning’s reports that don’t appear to be easily linked to the Secretary of State’s stated war aims.
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@AdHaque110 I don't think our head is wobbling at all. We give the history. The issue here is how it affects the narrative, an important part of war, and how Trump might respond. As for the Geneva conventions, I am not Iran's adherence to these with captives has always been top notch.
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Prisoners of war are a normal part of international armed conflict.
Their legal protection is exhaustively detailed in the Geneva Conventions.
Everyone needs to keep their heads on straight.
Shashank Joshi@shashj
Our story on the F-15E crash & the potential implications of an American prisoner of war in Iranian hands. economist.com/middle-east-an…
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On Airbus imagery. x.com/leguape/status…
Alex Murray@leguape
@shashj It’s not in ready-to-use area, so have to request processing (takes up to 48hr) & expensive (part of my daily = costing this). Airbus not “publishing” but clients have option to do so & crucially equal access to captures of targeted locations in Iran.
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Airbus image from March 29th, just a few days ago. A European company still publishing images of US facilities in the Gulf & battle damage, when US companies have stopped doing so or imposed heavy delays.
Thomas Bordeaux@ThomasBordeaux7
A new satellite image confirms that a US AN/TPY-2 radar was damaged at a Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The radar, which was struck on March 1st, is a crucial piece of equipment for the US’s THAAD missile interception system. cnn.com/2026/04/02/wor… Image: Airbus
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@leguape Thanks, Alex. Should have said "releasing", rather than publishing.
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@shashj It’s not in ready-to-use area, so have to request processing (takes up to 48hr) & expensive (part of my daily = costing this). Airbus not “publishing” but clients have option to do so & crucially equal access to captures of targeted locations in Iran.
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Our story on the F-15E crash & the potential implications of an American prisoner of war in Iranian hands. economist.com/middle-east-an…
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Some really serious questions of @CENTCOM in the last few days. First, their claim that an Iranian drone rather than a Patriot interceptor caused damage in Bahrain. Second, their claim that an Iranian missile rather than PrSM was behind the Lamerd strike (bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…)
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis@ArmsControlWonk
A second video now appears to show the U.S. operated Patriot interceptor striking Block 602 of the Mahazza neighborhood in Bahrain early in the morning of March 9, 2026 -- just as @sam_lair, @DuitsmanMS, myself and others assessed & @JonathanLanday reported.
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Shows how risky these rescue efforts are.
Carla Babb@CarlaBNewsmax
Make that FOUR US aircraft: I’ve just confirmed from a US military official that a second helicopter was hit today
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@riotcockchain It was damaged, not sure we can call it a combat loss.
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@shashj F-16 also went down over Saudi Arabia. That's 4
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So that would be an F-15E, an A-10 and a Black Hawk, the latter reportedly involved in the rescue effort, all hit today.
Carla Babb@CarlaBNewsmax
#BREAKING I’ve now confirmed the Blackhawk WAS hit by Iran. The crew is accounted for and is safe, a US official tells me.
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@mashabani NYT noted HIMARS unit deployed to Kuwait, but not clear to me that is where PrSM strike came from. More to the point, was Kuwait involved at start of war? I missed that. Iran would still have reason to target US forces there, but not necess more broadly.
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NYT has reported that the US initiated war on Iran from Kuwait (and Bahrain). Under Article 8 of Rome Statute, that would make it party to the war. Kuwaiti territory has subsequently been used for ATACMS strikes on Iran.
Sequence of events is clear and vital to consider.
Toby Matthiesen@TobyMatthiesen
One of the most surprising things about this war are the heavy and ongoing Iranian attacks on Kuwait. Kuwait has had mostly good relations with Iran, and definitively had not been at the forefront of those critical of Iran, not least because of Kuwait's history with its neighbours, its political system, and its particular foundational contract in which both originally Persian speakers and Shii Muslims are a sizeable and very important part of the population. Still, Kuwait has been attacked more often than any other Gulf State apart from the UAE, and some of these attacks have caused significant damage. Today's attack on a water desalination plant is really an attack on the entire population of the country. I mean, who doesn't like Kuwait? What is going on here? Kuwait blamed Iran, Iran blamed Israel for the strike. This is under-reported, as events in Kuwait have been for so long.
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@Dan1763 @KD10675067 There were considerably more friendly fire incidents in 1991.
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@shashj @KD10675067 There were friendly fire incidents Gulf War as well both in terms of US Patriots shooting down British and Italian Tornados and US A-10 strike British ground troops
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The US had 28 fixed-wing aircraft losses, amid more than 100,000 sorties, in the 1991 Gulf war (overall coalition aircraft losses were 75 aircraft; history.navy.mil/content/dam/nh…). This time it's three losses to friendly fire (Kuwait) & one fixed-wing loss in ~9,000 combat flights.
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@shashj Was it confirmed that the A-10 was shot down? So far, I know that an F-15E was shot down, an A-10 went down (cause unknown), and a Black Hawk was hit but didn't go down.
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@shashj Are you not including the tanker that crashed along with the one damaged during the collision?
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Shashank Joshi retweetledi
#BREAKING I’ve now confirmed the Blackhawk WAS hit by Iran. The crew is accounted for and is safe, a US official tells me.
Carla Babb@CarlaBNewsmax
#BREAKING Two US officials have now confirmed to Newsmax that one of the pilots has been rescued and is undergoing medical treatment. The status of the second pilot is unknown. Search and rescue ops continue. We've seen video of HC-130 aircraft and helos in the skies. One source tells me a Blackhawk may have also been hit over Iran while conducting rescue ops to find the second F-15 pilot. I'm told the Blackhawk was tailed by a trail of smoke as it crossed into southern Iraq from Iran today.
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OK, let me revise that. Latest figure is 12,000 sorties in Epic Fury. Combat losses would be: F-15E & Warthog today, damaged F-35 in March, E-3 Sentry on ground, and several- not clear to be precisely how many - tankers on the ground.
x.com/shashj/status/…
Shashank Joshi@shashj
The US had 28 fixed-wing aircraft losses, amid more than 100,000 sorties, in the 1991 Gulf war (overall coalition aircraft losses were 75 aircraft; history.navy.mil/content/dam/nh…). This time it's three losses to friendly fire (Kuwait) & one fixed-wing loss in ~9,000 combat flights.
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That figure should probably include the E-3 loss last week, though, as well as any seriously damaged tankers. x.com/shashj/status/…
Shashank Joshi@shashj
The US had 28 fixed-wing aircraft losses, amid more than 100,000 sorties, in the 1991 Gulf war (overall coalition aircraft losses were 75 aircraft; history.navy.mil/content/dam/nh…). This time it's three losses to friendly fire (Kuwait) & one fixed-wing loss in ~9,000 combat flights.
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"A second Air Force combat plane crashed ...and the lone pilot was safely rescued, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The A-10 Warthog attack plane went down near the Strait of Hormuz" nytimes.com/live/2026/04/0…
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