I hope that the @SecWar, @USPACOM, @CENTCOM, @US_EUCOM, @US_TRANSCOM, @MSCSealift, @SecDuffy and @DOTMARAD are watching the Tanker War in the Strait. This is what CONTESTED LOGISTICS looks like in the 21st century. It is estimated that approximately 5 to 10% of the ships coming through the Strait are coming under attack. How will this look in a Western Pacific scenario along the First Island Chain. Will we see LCSs and LSMs actually deployed to the theater when we do not want to expose DDGs to this level of fire? Do we have enough U.S. ships in the merchant marine, Military Sealift Command and Ready Reserve Force to sustain military forces? This is the new Tanker War and it looks more like the asymmetric warfare encountered by U.S. land forces in Iraq and Afghanistan than conventional warfare. Is the Navy ready for this in the future should be the relevant question?

Everyone might be seeing a lot of back and forth, and fighting among all the observers watching the events transpiring in the Perisan Gulf. The reason laregly has to do with the massive volume of strikes conducted by the Iranians over the last two weeks against ships in the Strait of Hormuz The @UK_MTO and @IMOHQ reporting sheets have recorded single to multiple daily attacks. This along with imagery - some real, some taken from previous attacks, and some AI generated - is causing a great deal of confusion. What we do know is this: 1️⃣The U.S., along with the Gulf state-tanker firms are continuing to operate their shuttle service out of the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman 2️⃣We are seeing on AIS, fully loaded tankers sailing from the Gulf of Oman to global destinations, but the flow fluctuates based on loading capacities at the ship-to-ship anchorages 3️⃣The U.S. is maintaining its blockade of Iran, with a recent strike against a ship trying to violate it - Panama-flagged M/V Ocean Molica (also known as the “Arika Sun”) 4️⃣Commercial ships are continuing to sail from the Gulf due to the extraordinarily high charter rates for ships and they are getting crews with large bonuses to offset the danger - but NOT $100k/month as reported. 5️⃣FINALLY...there is no ONE good source that you can go to and get the clear picture on this. You have to look at multiple sources and determine the best estimate because the U.S. and Iran are not releasing all the information and some of it is disinformation. You also have a lot of people looking and talking about this subject who do not understand the topic. So, I recommend, that you look at a wide array of sources and give more credence to those that have been accurate but know that mistakes will occur - I SCREW UP MYSELF - and be thinking about the 26 mariners who have died in this conflict so far.