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Relief is on the way for the Sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, who have endured grueling conditions amid round-the-clock operations without any liberty port calls since deploying last year in November. The George Washington CSG entered the Singapore Strait as the sun was rising on August 13, reportedly en route to the Middle East to replace the Lincoln, which will cross the nine-month deployed mark this week, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. “The USS Abraham Lincoln crushed their deployment and will return home soon as part of a planned rotation,” the acting Secretary of the Navy, Hung Cao, said in a statement on Friday. However, the move means the U.S. currently has no carrier presence in Asia to deter the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

This is TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed Carrier Strike Groups (CSG) and Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG), using publicly available open-source information. Check out last week’s report here.

The three-ship strike group, led by flagship USS George Washington, transited the Malacca Strait northbound before entering the Andaman Sea the following day and continued steaming west, most recently operating at an undisclosed location in the Indian Ocean. The transit to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR), which covers over four million square miles and encompasses 21 countries across the Middle East and South Asia, can take days or weeks depending on the flattop’s speed, route, and whether any stops are made along the way. The CSG could arrive as soon as this week, but the actual arrival date is unclear.

TWZ reached out to George Washington’s Public Affairs Officer (PAO), U.S. Pacific Command PAO, and Pentagon Press Operations to confirm the WSJ’s reporting, but was told, “We have nothing to provide due to operations security.” An unidentified Navy official subsequently confirmed the move to Stars and Stripes, and a separate U.S. official told CNN the same.

Washington’s repositioning, which was not publicly disclosed prior to the strait transit, leaves Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), with no carrier coverage in theater to deter or counter potential PRC or DPRK aggression. Carrier gaps in the Pacific were rare up until 2024, which marked the first time in decades that the U.S. had no flattops in Asia, highlighting the continued strain on the U.S. carrier fleet. Paparo has previously remarked on munition constraints given conflicts in other regions, saying, “inherently, it imposes costs on the readiness of America to respond in the Indo-Pacific region… it is now eating into [our] stocks, and to say otherwise would be dishonest.” Should a contingency arise unexpectedly in Asia, the closest deployed U.S. carrier group available will be in a different part of the world.

Moving to the Middle East, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush are still operating in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility (AOR) as of publication. The 60-day window initially agreed upon in the memorandum of understanding to negotiate an agreement to end hostilities expired today, with neither side indicating any interest in extending; in fact, both sides appear farther apart now than when the ink dried two months ago. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a Telegram post over the weekend, said, “We have not yet made a decision to restart negotiations with the United States.” U.S. President Trump told Fox News on Monday, “I have no time schedule. I’m not in a hurry,” and posted on Truth Social that “the number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon,” but did not mention the exploding deadline directly.

Both carriers have been involved in enforcing the “steel wall,” but the current composition of the blockading force is fluid. Lincoln, which has flown more than 10,000 sorties and dropped over 1.5 million pounds of ordnance, was spotted on DVIDS, the U.S. military’s content-sharing platform, alongside fast combat support ship USNS Arctic and dry cargo ship USNS Alan Shepard in what appears to be a much-needed resupply. CENTCOM forces have turned 64 commercial vessels around, disabled three using kinetic effects, and boarded another two to ensure compliance, based on the latest update published on August 17.

Back home, USS Carl Vinson was spotted leaving San Diego on August 10 by popular ship-spotting account @Warshipcam. Vinson’s current mission set is not publicly available, but she has been working up in preparation for a future deployment. USS Theodore Roosevelt, on deck to deploy next from the West Coast, is still pierside in San Diego, based on satellite imagery reviewed by TWZ. Her deployment date is classified, but with no carriers in PACOM and the blockade still on in CENTCOM, it will likely be sooner rather than later. Roosevelt could head to Asia or the Middle East (or both).

America’s next, newest aircraft carrier, Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) John F. Kennedy, returned to Newport News, Virginia, after successfully completing acceptance sea trials on August 15. The second Ford class carrier, which is expected to be delivered in spring of 2027, spent four days underway off the east coast to test and evaluate key systems and core components. In February, Kennedy completed builder’s sea trials, and the next step is preliminary acceptance for further evaluation by the Navy. The future JFK is currently 98 percent complete, according to a press release from the Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) for Maritime, the single organization accountable for delivering surface ships to the service.

“Over the last few days, the crew of the future USS John F. Kennedy performed incredibly well and have demonstrated that they are ready to put this ship to work for the Navy,” said Capt. Mark Johnson, Program Manager for Aircraft Carrier New Construction at PAE. “This milestone is a testament to the shared commitment of our sailors and our Navy-industry team, who remain dedicated to completing the final stages of construction with precision and efficiency.”

Overall, three U.S. carriers are deployed, three are working up or at homeport in various states of readiness, four are in maintenance, and one is being used for training. One amphibious ready group is deployed, five are training or in port, and three are in maintenance availabilities.

Note: Positions are general approximations. Non-deployed LHA/LHD amphibious warships are not shown.

Contact the author: ian.ellis-jones@teamrecurrent.io

US president says Iran should ‘put up the white flag of surrender’ as the two nations’ MoU expired on Monday.

Bogota, Colombia – One week after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake rocked western Colombia, rescue efforts continue despite the razor-thin chances of survival.

The disaster response, however, is entering a new phase as rescue teams wind down operations and aid organisations begin focusing on housing those made homeless by the earthquake and providing basic necessities.

While official data reveals vast destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses, the full scale of the devastation continues to be assessed.

Fifteen of Colombia’s 32 provinces were affected by the earthquake, which killed at least 289 people and injured 4,187.

The earthquake struck San Jose del Palmar, a rural town in Colombia’s Pacific region, and devastated swaths of nearby cities like Pereira, Quibdo, and Cali.

In total, 127,557 homes were damaged, and were 26,945 destroyed. The disaster also devastated other institutions, including 285 health centres and 2,838 educational facilities.

Economic infrastructure sustained significant damage, with 407 roads, 92 water supply systems, 44 vehicular bridges, and five airports affected.

In the past week, emergency response teams have carried out an unrelenting rescue effort that has saved 354 lives.

As of Sunday night, 143 people remain unaccounted for, according to government figures, though an unofficial online database called Colombia Te Busca (Colombia is looking for you) puts the number of missing at more than 3,000.

“It has been a gruelling week, with little time to rest, as we’ve been focused on searching for, locating, and rescuing potential victims,” said Sergeant Joel Bustamente, who is leading the Bogota Fire Department’s deployment in Cali.

He added that the chances of finding life under the rubble have dropped significantly, and response teams’ priorities are shifting towards a medium-term emergency.

“Certain search-and-rescue operations are no longer necessary, and we have now moved on to a phase in which reconstruction, demolition, and other types of operations… will begin,” said Bustamente.

In some places, such as the seven-storey Vanessa Building in Cali, efforts to find survivors have been paused altogether.

“Search and rescue operations have been suspended since Friday. They are now in the phase of recovering bodies,” said Enrique Zapata, head of logistics at Cali-based health NGO SARES, who has been helping with the emergency response at the Vanessa Building.

While the chances of finding life under the rubble drop sharply after the first 72 hours following an earthquake, others still hope.

“We never lose hope,” said Maximiliano Herrera, a volunteer rescuer in Cali, who added that the teams in charge had said the window for survival could be as long as 15 days.

In recent days, he said, local rescue efforts have been boosted by international teams from countries like Israel, the United States, and Mexico.

Housing the homeless

With more than 120,000 families affected by the earthquake, authorities are under pressure to shelter the homeless.

“In terms of long-term continuity or a medium-term response, the priority right now is clearly shelter and refuge,” said Egido Sanz, country director for Colombia at ActionAid, a UK-based anti-poverty NGO.

In cities like Cali and Pereira, local authorities have converted spaces such as sports stadiums and community centres into temporary shelters.

Veronica Echeverry, who oversees a shelter at a community hall in Cali, said that they have received help from citizens, hospitals, and local authorities.

The refuge doubles as an aid collection point, receiving and distributing donations of food, water, hygiene supplies and clothes.

“This support network has allowed us to respond immediately to some of the most urgent needs of the affected families,” said Echeverry.

But she also noted that few of those who have lost their homes have needed to go to shelters, largely because they come from wealthier areas and can depend on family and friends for housing.

Today, only two people are staying at the shelter, which has 11 beds.

Neglected regions

While demand for shelter is limited in major cities like Cali and Pereira, Echeverry said other areas desperately need assistance.

In places like Choco – Colombia’s poorest department – the earthquake has hit especially hard due to existing challenges.

“It is a crisis that comes on top of another major crisis that already existed,” said ActionAid’s Sanz.

Choco was not only the epicentre of the earthquake; it is also a hotbed for armed conflict, drug trafficking and illegal gold mining.

Cities like Quibdo, the provincial capital, are a hub for people displaced by violence. In the city of roughly 130,000 people, some 2,723 homes were damaged, 1,337 of which are now uninhabitable.

But residents say the government has been slow to act.

“There has been no institutional response at the national level regarding the construction of temporary or permanent shelters,” said Yilson Marmolejo, a Quibdo local.

Meanwhile, the situation in the wider province, much of which is only accessible by river, remains unclear.

“There are places where, even today, the true situation has not yet been fully understood,” said Sanz.

Economic and political fallout

The earthquake has also unleashed vast economic destruction in Colombia.

Sixty-five-year-old Nestor Martinez has owned a bicycle shop in Buenaventura for 25 years. But the earthquake ravaged his store, wrecking its awning, toppling walls, and crushing merchandise.

Martinez has spent the last week cleaning up the debris and conducting an audit of the damage.

He estimates that the cost of the disaster for him is approximately 350 million pesos ($111,000). But, like many Colombians, he does not have business insurance.

“You have to scrape together money wherever you can to get back on your feet,” he said.

Martinez is one of hundreds of thousands who will need support from the government to rebuild their lives.

Donations have poured in from around the world, including a 2 million euro ($2.3m) pledge from the European Union and $15.5m from the US.

President Abelardo de la Espriella, meanwhile, has pledged a reconstruction fund to repair the damage, which his finance minister estimated to be at least $6.4bn.

The president also declared an economic emergency, granting him powers to raise funds through new taxes, but the right-wing statesman has instead opted to increase borrowing, primarily through a $450m credit line from the World Bank.

The earthquake represents the first major test for the leader, who was inaugurated just three days before it struck. He has faced criticism for abstaining from a handover process with the previous government, muddying the disaster response, and for politicising aid by saying he would only accept rescue teams from Israel, El Salvador, and the US – countries ideologically aligned with his government.

Although the country is beginning to turn to the long-term consequences of the disaster, emergency responders continue the arduous labour of digging through the rubble.

“The search for survivors continues; there’s always the possibility of miracles,” said Sergeant Bustamente.

Commercial satellite imagery shows Russia has been expanding the dedicated launch infrastructure for its long-range one-way attack drones, including newly constructed extended rails apparently intended to accommodate larger, newer Geran variants. The construction provides concrete evidence that Moscow is increasing its ability to stage and launch larger numbers of long-range strike drones from dispersed locations near Ukraine and Belarus. The launch sites also bring more NATO territory within the drones’ reach.

An investigation by The Telegraph, based on commercially available satellite imagery and analysis by drone-intelligence firm DroneSec, identified at least 10 Russian sites with newly constructed or expanded drone-launch infrastructure. The investigation counted at least 59 launch rails, roughly 20 of which were assessed to be long enough to support newer Geran-type drones. Open-source tracking data indicated that seven of the 10 sites had been used in Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Some of the facilities have been converted from existing military bases and civilian airfields, while others have been constructed in remote areas.

At Tsymbulova in Russia’s Oryol region, for example, commercial satellite imagery shows four launch rails, including two measuring roughly 280 feet. Construction of the extended rails was visible beginning in late 2025. Business Insider independently reported on the facility in April 2026, citing imagery from U.S. satellite-intelligence company Vantor.

More recent imagery reportedly shows the Tsymbulova facility with 16 launch positions, as well as dozens of drones and additional support infrastructure. Storage buildings and other structures have also been constructed at the site, consistent with an expanding ability to stage large numbers of drones before launch. Some of the facilities have storage capacity for more than 1,000 drones, The Telegraph reports.

The longer rails have been assessed as being associated with Russia’s newer Geran-4 and Geran-5 variants, which represent a further evolution of the long-range one-way attack munition concept. There is also the possibility that these rails will be used to launch other heavier types with less range, too. This would be of considerable utility for Russia, as they have worked to max out the effects of the warheads on the Shahed-136/Geran-2, and their destructive power is limited to certain target types. Harder-hitting drones with heavier warheads but less reach would reduce the need to expend far more expensive and less numerous ballistic missiles and cruise missiles to hit target types that lay outside of the capabilities of the Geran-2/Shahed-136.

Case in point, the Geran-4/5, these jet-powered drones are faster and more survivable. They are also able to carry substantially larger payloads than Shahed-136/Geran-2s. The exact performance of the newer systems remains difficult to independently establish from open-source evidence. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR), the Geran-5 has a length of around 20 feet and a wingspan of approximately 18 feet. Overall, the drone’s payload weighs around 200 pounds, which is multiplied times that of a Shahed-136, and it is thought to have a range of around 620 miles.

While the heavier jet-powered one-way attack munitions may lack the range of the earlier propeller-driven Geran-2, which can hit targets at around 1,200 miles, this reach is not needed to strike targets even deep inside Ukraine, where payload maximization and reduced chances of interception are increasingly higher priorities. The jet drones allow for easier penetration, including at altitude, meaning they can operate outside the reach of lower-tier air defenses, ranging from SHORADS to drone interceptors. The Geran-4/5 can also be used at lower levels, depending on the area they are trying to penetrate.

The infrastructure expansion is occurring alongside a dramatic increase in Russian drone production. Russia adapted the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 into the Geran-2 and subsequently established large-scale domestic production. TWZ has reported that Russian output has reached thousands of Shahed/Geran-family drones per month, with production at the Alabuga complex potentially exceeding 50,000 annually in 2026. Earlier estimates put Alabuga production at roughly 2,000 drones per month, with plans to increase output to 5,000.

The expanding production capacity has transformed the Geran from a relatively limited weapon into the central component of Russia’s long-range strike campaign against Ukraine. TWZ has documented the progression from relatively small numbers of Shahed attacks over the winter of 2022-23 to barrages involving hundreds of drones and, by 2026, more than 1,000 in a single 24-hour period. The ability to manufacture the weapons in large numbers allows Russia to sustain repeated attacks and force Ukraine to expend scarce air-defense interceptors against comparatively inexpensive targets.

Satellite analysis indicates that Russia launched about 16,000 long-range drones against Ukraine in the period between January and March 2026, roughly 6,000 more than in the same period of 2025.

The attraction for Moscow is not simply range. Geran-type drones are sufficiently inexpensive to be expended in large numbers, and this cost-exchange reality forces Ukraine to balance the cost of defending against them against the much lower cost of Russia producing the drones in the first place. At the same time, the drones are critical to Russia since it cannot produce legacy standoff weapons at anywhere near the same scale, especially after years of sanctions and war.

Meanwhile, the expanded launch network also changes the geography of the threat. Some of the newly developed sites are close enough to Russia’s western borders that, depending on the actual performance of the newer drones, parts of Poland could fall within their theoretical reach. The entirety of the territory of the Baltic States would also be covered, placing a highly exposed and strategic part of NATO’s eastern flank under the potential threat of mass drone attacks.

While that does not demonstrate an intention to attack NATO, it does give Moscow additional options should the conflict broaden.

The development comes as NATO faces a wider range of Russian activity below the threshold of open warfare, including cyber operations, sabotage, GPS/electronic interference, drone activity and other “gray zone” measures on NATO’s territory. Earlier this month, Lithuania warned that Russia was considering a staged attack against that Baltic region, and the Baltic States, as well as Poland, have all stepped up security measures around dams, power plants and other critical infrastructure, amid fears of a false-flag operation, likely using drones.

A NATO official told The Telegraph that drones, more generally, have “fundamentally altered the character of modern warfare” and that the alliance is expanding its ability to produce, operate and neutralize drones at scale.

It’s worth considering that these Russian drone launch facilities are far from being invulnerable “secret bases.” Ukraine knows where many of them are and has attacked launch sites in the past. However, disrupting drone launch operations, in general, has proved difficult. In addition, by using mobile launchers mounted on pickup trucks, Russia can conduct launches from any location, employing “shoot and scoot” tactics to avoid attack, as seen in the video below.

The peer is an ex-Labour MP and secretary of state for culture, media and sport as well as a former chairman of the Environment Agency.

Downing Street declined to say “at this stage” whether Prime Minister Andy Burnham was considering an inquiry, reiterating that it was “a moment for reflection”, and that it was right for “the usual processes” like an inquest, to conclude.

An investigation will be carried out to determine the cause of death, which could take several weeks, London Inner South Coroner’s Court said.

Once complete, the coroner will confirm if an inquest will take place.

Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said he was angry about what happened to Arday, and the university establishment – not just Cambridge – should have “done the robust due diligence and checking that should happen with any senior academic appointment”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, the shadow housing secretary said he felt Arday was used as “bragging rights by some universities”, and that people spoke of his “age and his ethnicity rather than his talent”.

Sir James – who was Britain’s first black home secretary and foreign secretary – said much of the coverage surrounding Arday was “quite possibly” motivated by racism, but that the questions over plagiarism were legitimate, regardless of motivation.

The plagiarism row began after another academic – self-defined “race realist” Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 – said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in the professor’s work.

Cofnas’s post had been terminated amid a backlash to his view that under a true meritocracy black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment”.

Cambridge had celebrated Arday’s appointment as a young black professor, one of a tiny and visible minority in academia. Only 1% of professors in UK universities are black, making each appointment hugely significant.

On Sunday, more than 200 people attended a vigil at Cambridge that was organised by Arday’s postdoctoral students.

Annual military manoeuvres between South Korea and the United States are underway.

But just hours before they were due to start, the US president announced that he had ordered the Pentagon to substantially scale back the exercises.

Donald Trump says they send an inappropriate and hostile signal to North Korea and its leader, with whom he has a ‘good relationship’.

The joint drills have been held for decades.

So, does Trump’s last-minute decision mean he’s seeking talks with Kim Jong Un?

Could dialogue end one of the world’s longest-running conflicts?

Presenter: Anna Burns-Francis

Guests:

In Bum Chun – Retired South Korean Lieutenant General and military and security analyst

Jenny Town – Senior Fellow and Director of 38 North programme at the Stimson Center

Rodger Baker — Geopolitical analyst at RANE, a global centre for geopolitical intelligence and analysis

Ireland’s Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said on Monday that he condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the “reckless criminal behaviour”.

“I also want to emphasis that anyone who makes the decision to drive a vehicle deliberately the wrong way down a motorway is engaged in lethally dangerous behaviour and it must stop,” O’Callaghan said.

He said he spoke with the Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly on Monday and had emphasised to him that the gardaí “will have whatever resources they require from government in order to respond to this threat to public safety”.

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said tougher laws are needed to deal with people driving in dangerous ways.

GRA’s James Morrisoe said people are playing “Russian roulette” with their own lives and lives of innocent members of the public through dangerous driving.

Martin added that it was the “second appalling crash we’ve seen on our roads in a matter of days as a result of the reckless driving of a car on the wrong side of the motorway, endangering the lives of innocent road users”.

He said it was an “irresponsible and dangerous act, and it is shocking that in some cases it is being done for likes on social media”.

O’Callaghan said it was important to emphasis that social media companies “have a big responsibility in respect of this”.

“They emphasis in their codes of practice that they will not allow any postings that glorify criminal behaviour.

“Regrettably, that hasn’t been happening and social media companies need to step up to the mark as well in respect of their own responsibilities.”

Irish broadcaster RTE is reporting, external that the family is from the Carlow area.

It adds that several of the boys who died in the crash had “strong links” to Carlow town and to Athy in County Kildare.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has plans for a new radar to succeed the AN/TPY-2. The AN/TPY-2 is most commonly associated with the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) ballistic missile defense system, but it can also be used as a stand-alone sensor in a larger integrated air defense network. MDA’s main desire now is to find a more mobile radar system to make them less susceptible to enemy missile and drone attacks. Iran’s successful targeting of largely static missile defense radars this year, including the reported destruction of at least one AN/TPY-2, has been a wake-up call to just how vulnerable these prized assets have become already. TWZ explored this reality and its implications in a detailed feature earlier this year.

MDA put out a call yesterday for “innovative prototype concepts” for what it is currently calling the Forward-Based Mode (FBM) Radar Next. This notably came just ahead of the annual Space & Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, that opened today and at which TWZ is in attendance.

The contracting notice stresses that the agency is currently in the pre-solication phase of this effort, but that it does have plans to eventually pursue these prototypes through an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) agreement. OTA is a mechanism typically used to support rapid prototyping and other research and development work outside of a typical and often drawn-out contracting process. In its budget request for the 2027 Fiscal Year, which was released earlier this year, MDA also explicitly asked for funding for a pair of “next generation radar prototypes to prove out and mature emerging technologies for the future FBM Radar fleet.”

For some additional context, MDA uses the term FBM here to refer to a radar used to detect threats, traditionally ballistic missiles, after launch. Deployable radars like the AN/TPY-2 employed in this role are typically emplaced at semi-permanent sites. The U.S. military also has higher-end static strategic radar sites around the globe, along with space-based assets, to help provide additional layers of early warning detection.

FBM is one of two typical modes of operation for the X-band AN/TPY-2. The other is a terminal mode where the radar is used to cue interceptors to incoming threats. As mentioned, AN/TPY-2 is most commonly used in the terminal mode as part of the THAAD system, but it also has a demonstrated ability to feed data to Patriot surface-to-air missile systems.

At the time of writing, the U.S. military is publicly known to have two AN/TPY-2s deployed in the FBM mode in Japan, as well as three more at sites in Israel, Qatar, and Turkey. Additional AN/TPY-2 are also currently forward-deployed elsewhere globally as a component of the THAAD system.

AN/TYP-2s, as well as the generators needed to power them, are trailer-mounted and technically road mobile. However, they are not designed to be very rapidly relocated from one site to another. This brings us back to the FBM Radar Next.

“As adversarial missile capabilities become increasingly sophisticated, the need for agile, survivable, and highly precise forward-based sensors has never been greater. Current static or semi-mobile radars are vulnerable to counterattacks and lack the rapid relocation capabilities necessary for modern distributed operations,” the pre-solication notice explains. “FBM Radar Next will close this gap by providing a system that can be quickly transported, set up, and operated in austere forward locations while maintaining interoperability with existing Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) networks.”

In terms of transportability and deployability requirements, “the system must be capable of rapid deployment and transport via C-17 military airlift and tactical ground vehicles,” the notice says. “The radar must demonstrate rapid setup and teardown times (e.g., operational within specified hours of arrival, and tear down within minutes to maximize survivability).”

The next-generation radar must also be capable of “high-sensitivity detection, persistent tracking, and precise discrimination of advanced threats in high-clutter and contested electromagnetic environments,” the notice continues. MDA also wants “engineered physical, thermal, and electromagnetic signatures to
ensure platform survivability in contested environments.”

Furthermore, “the design must support remote operations, command and control integration, and automated system health monitoring,” the notice adds. Minimizing the onsite operator footprint is critical to improving personnel safety and increasing overall tactical flexibility.”

MDA wants the FBM Radar Next to be able to slot into more “versatile deployment architectures, with the capability to operate either as a highly integrated single aperture or as multiple distributed arrays to optimize geographical coverage, sensitivity, survivability, or electronic protection.” In line with this demand, there are additional requirements for a modular design with open architecture systems, as well as seamless integration with the existing Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) architecture.

The MDA video below highlights the general capabilities of the C2BMC architecture in the context of a notional engagement of a hypersonic threat utilizing the still-in-development Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI).

GPI Scenario Animation

A highly networked and distributed concept of operations could open the door to more novel radar configurations, including ones involving larger groups of smaller types, to succeed the AN/TPY-2. Smaller individual radars could also have reduced signatures, be easier to conceal, and be more readily relocatable, all helping to reduce vulnerability. This could also make the entire system more resilient in the event that nodes are lost or otherwise rendered inoperable for any reason.

There could be benefits in terms of unit cost and scalability of production from such an approach, too. Prime contractor Raytheon is understood to have only produced 16 AN/TPY-2s to date, in total, for all customers, not just the U.S. military. The unit cost of a single one of those radars is generally pegged at around $250 to $300 million, and these are long-lead-time items that take years to deliver.

“The system design must prioritize manufacturing ease, design-for-manufacturing-and-assembly (DFMA) principles, and cost-efficiency. It is critical that the prototype demonstrates a viable pathway to rapid, high-volume production at an affordable unit cost,” MDA’s FBM Radar Next notice makes clear. “This ensures the capability to quickly scale production and cost-effectively replace radar units in highly active forward-deployed environments.”

Regardless of the approach MDA ultimately decides to pursue, the threat ecosystem that is driving the FBM Radar Next plans is real now, and is not just limited to enemy missile attacks. Weaponized drones, especially long-range one-way attack types, present real dangers to high-value targets. This fact had already been driven firmly into the public consciousness by the ongoing war in Ukraine. It has now been further demonstrated by Iran’s aforementioned targeting of prized air and missile defense radars around the Middle East during fighting earlier this year. The ramifications of all of this go well beyond these particular conflict zones, too.

As we wrote back in March after Iran’s very deliberate targeting of U.S. and allied radars became clear:

“Strategic air and missile architectures, in general, exist in a world now where the threats they face are not limited to very-long-range standoff capabilities possessed only by peer or near-peer adversaries.“

“It used to be, generally, that you had to fire a ballistic missile or high-end cruise missile in an attempt to strike one of these systems. Now, long-range one-way-attack drones, as well as increasingly capable cruise and ballistic missiles, continue to proliferate steadily, including to smaller nation-state armed forces and even non-state actors. An attack could even come from a small drone with a C4 charge launched from a fishing trawler 10 miles away from one of these critical radar installations. The threat of these kinds of near-field attacks has largely been overlooked for years, even as the low-end drone threat has exploded and ‘democratized’ precision-guided weaponry, as they did not fit the established aerial threat matrix and the countermeasures used to repel those threats.”

…

“The scale and scope of Iran’s retaliatory attacks so far, while clearly threatening, pale in comparison to what one would expect to see in a major high-end fight between the United States and China in the Pacific. The overall ramifications would also be more severe.“

“Beyond the more immediate impacts of losing this kind of strategic radar coverage, there are far larger implications. In some cases, these radars are designed to provide critical early warning and verification of incoming nuclear strikes, or other large-scale attacks by a major adversary, targeting a nation’s home soil. They are critical parts of the nuclear deterrent. As such, losing these sensors can have major downstream impacts on strategic decision-making cycles based on concerns about what suddenly is not being seen. Fewer radars also means fewer ways to double-check that a track is not a false positive in a scenario where the total available decision-making time could be seriously truncated, to begin with. These are concerns TWZ explicitly highlighted after Ukraine’s attack on the Armavir Radar Station in Russia in 2024.”

During a panel discussion at the SMD Symposium today, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Richard Zellmann, Deputy Commander of U.S Space Command, further underscored the reality of the current threat ecosystem, including one-way attack drones layered in with traditional missile barrages. The general also highlighted the impact of more readily available space-enabled targeting and navigation capabilities.

“We see, I think, the low end on Epic Fury [the official nickname for U.S. operations against Iran earlier this year]. Sure, the missiles are more high-end, but we’ve seen our adversary employ a number of one-way attack systems that are coupled with these ballistic missile volleys,” Zellman explained. “We are really at this point in the history of warfare because of the democratization of space. Space isn’t a sanctuary. It’s no longer just the playground of nations with a lot of money.”

“The commercialization of space has created what many call essentially a transparent battlefield. And because I can see everything all the time with commercial ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; in this case primarily satellite imagery], it’s given our adversaries capabilities that they haven’t had in the past,” he continued. “That ISR, if you couple it with a platform that has access to GPS or some other PNT [Position, Navigation, and Timing] system, and then you add in another layer of over-the-horizon comms, like say from an Iridium or a Starlink [satellite communications terminal], and you have a pretty lethal asymmetric weapon system that our adversaries can get a hold of.”

Munitions that use GPS, or a similar form of navigation, alone for guidance are only employable against static targets. This, in turn, only drives home even more the importance of the transportability and deployability requirements that are at the heart of the FBM Radar Next plan.

It’s also important to note that, like AN/TPY-2 now, FBM Radar Next will still be just one part of a larger air and missile defense architecture. In our analysis earlier this year, we noted that Iranian attacks on radars in the Middle East had reinforced arguments for new layered defenses to protect those and other prized assets and for migrating more early warning and missile tracking capabilities into space. There is still a question of how much of that functionality will be shared and eventually ported over into orbital sensing capabilities. As Lt. Gen. Zellmann pointed out today, threats to space-based capabilities continue to grow, and that domain can no longer be considered a sanctuary, either. Having a layered, redundant, and flexible mix of terrestrial and orbital sensing for ballistic missile tracking will remain highly important for the foreseeable future.

What exactly a successor to the AN/TPY-2 looks like in the end remains to be seen. What is clear now is that very real missile and drone threats have prompted a major rethinking on the part of MDA about how future missile defense radars will need to be employed to ensure they can survive going forward.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Coventry City have signed Nigeria striker Taiwo Awoniyi from Nottingham Forest for £9m.

The 29-year-old joins Coventry before Friday’s Premier League opener at champions Arsenal, with the club returning to the top flight after a 25-year absence.

Awoniyi was given a guard of honour by the Forest squad and staff before the second half of their final pre-season friendly against Brest on Sunday to allow him to say goodbye at the City Ground, where he spent the past four seasons.

“He was probably one of the loveliest guys I’ve met, always friendly, always smiling,” said Forest boss Oliver Glasner, after a 2-0 win over the Ligue 1 side.

“Everybody in the club likes him and I could see everybody in the stand likes him because this is what everybody appreciates.

“He always gives 100% for the team, he always gives 100% for the bench, and that’s why he deserves such a farewell, such a guard of honour. That’s why we decided we would give it to him and I wish him all the best at his next club, just not when they play us.”

Awoniyi became Forest’s record signing at the time when he joined from Union Berlin in 2022 for £17.2m.

He scored 23 goals in 103 games for Forest but has been behind Chris Wood and Igor Jesus in the pecking order and was left out of last season’s Europa League squad.

Awoniyi started just three games last season, scoring four goals in 17 appearances in all competitions.

In May 2025, he was placed in an induced coma, rupturing an intestine when he collided with a post during a game against Leicester.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis said: “Taiwo will always have a special place in the history of Nottingham Forest. He has been one of the defining figures in our journey and given our supporters moments of great joy that will never be forgotten.”

Coventry are in Premier League for the first time in 25 years and have already re-signed midfielder Gus Hamer from Sheffield United and goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, following his successful loan from Brighton.

Winger Loum Tchaouna has joined from Burnley, defender Aurele Amenda arrived from Eintracht Frankfurt and Ghana international Caleb Yirenkyi signed from Nordsjaelland.

Striker Haji Wright is injured, with Brandon Thomas-Asante and Ellis Simms the current fit striking options for manager Frank Lampard before the Arsenal game.

FairSquare says the FIFA president should not be able to run again under the world football organisation’s statutes.

Human rights organisation FairSquare has urged FIFA to rule that Gianni Infantino is ineligible to seek another term as the football governing body’s president, arguing he ⁠has already served the maximum three terms permitted under the body’s statutes.

FIFA presidents are limited to three terms in office. However, in 2022, Infantino successfully argued that his first spell in charge, which began when he was elected at an Extraordinary FIFA Congress ⁠in 2016 following Sepp Blatter’s resignation, should not count towards that limit because it completed an interrupted mandate.

In a letter sent to FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) as reported by The Athletic, FairSquare said that interpretation was inconsistent with FIFA statutes.

“The complaint we have filed provides clear evidence that this is a clear breach of the rules and one that sets a very dangerous precedent,” FairSquare’s ‌Director Nicholas McGeehan told the Reuters news agency.

“The rules state clearly that three presidential terms is the maximum allowed; FIFA can’t simply circumvent this rule – which serves as a check on presidential power – by saying that his first term doesn’t count.”

Infantino is facing mounting scrutiny ahead of next year’s FIFA Congress, where he is expected to seek re-election for the 2027-31 cycle. The vote is scheduled to take place in Morocco on March 18.

Last week, UEFA, the Asian Football Confederation and CONCACAF called for a review of Infantino’s conduct after FIFA proposed creating a $20bn subsidiary linked to its competitions, including the World Cup, to ⁠attract private investment. Sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters that the three confederations viewed the letter ⁠as an opportunity for Infantino to quit with his dignity intact.

Several national associations have also voiced concerns. Scottish Football Association chief executive Ian Maxwell told the BBC on Monday that his federation would not support Infantino’s re-election.

Infantino, however, retains the backing of the African and South American confederations.

Questions over transparency

FairSquare also questioned the transparency of the 2022 ruling, saying the committee’s reasoning had never been made public.

“The fact they didn’t provide any reasoning to support this ⁠claim, and that they announced the apparent decision two days before the final of ⁠the Qatar 2022 World Cup, suggests that they knew full well that there was no basis to discount Infantino’s first term,” McGeehan said.

The letter to the GACC was drafted with assistance from Miguel Maduro, the former head of FIFA’s independent Governance and Review Committee, who said the governing body could not disregard its ‌own rules.

“The principle of term limits was a fundamental aspect of the 2016 reform aimed at limiting power and the rule introduced is clear: no FIFA president can serve more than three terms of office,” Maduro said in a statement.

“Trying to carve ‌out ‌an exception to such a rule for Mr Infantino reveals both a resistance to the principle of term limits and how some at FIFA conceive of rules not as rules but as obstacles to be circumvented.”

Twelve people including the captain are on board ‘Kate’, the latest vessel attempting to deliver aid.

Bristol, United Kingdom – A boat has set sail from southern England as part of a flotilla’s efforts to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Supporters on Sunday gathered at Hannover Quay in Bristol, a city represented by the Greens and known for its progressive spirit, to send off “Kate”, a vessel with Freedom Flotilla activists on board.

Among those bidding the 12 activists farewell were Swee Ang, a doctor and the founder of Medical Aid for Palestinians; the Welsh nurse Leigh Evans, who was seen in footage shared widely online kneeling before Egyptian soldiers in June 2025, pleading to be allowed to cross and deliver aid to Gaza and David Miller, a professor who recently won a legal battle against the University of Bristol over his anti-Zionist views.

Fiacc O Brolchain, the Irish sailor and captain of the vessel who was detained by Israeli forces earlier this year during a previous mission, said his hearing aids were seized while being interrogated. He said he kept repeating to the Israeli soldiers, “I can’t hear you; you took my hearing aids.”

Israel has since 2010 intercepted or attacked every flotilla that has attempted to breach the Gaza blockade, including in international waters.

Frank Romano, a member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and an international lawyer who has represented Palestinian cases before the International Court of Justice, said that since October 2023, Israeli forces have intercepted and detained more than 75 solidarity ships and boats. He has taken up legal battles to recover them, but has succeeded in retrieving only two vessels.

Romano himself owns “Handala”, a vessel named after a character created by the late Palestinian artist Naji al-Ali, that was intercepted and detained in July 2025.

The Global Sumud Flotilla, which Romano said has so far cost $24m and comprises scores of boats in different waves, launched its first mission last year and a much larger one in April.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined the movement and was among the flotilla’s passengers detained by Israel when their boat, the Alma, was intercepted in October. She is among those who alleged physical and psychological abuse while detained. Israel denied the allegations.

Colm Byrne, an Irish activist who is setting sail again after participating in previous flotilla attempts, said that in April, he was more than 1,000km (620 miles) from Gaza when Israeli forces intercepted. He said flotilla members were kicked, beaten and forced into painful and humiliating postures. He suffered a shoulder injury, he said.

Activists were made to spend four hours on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs before being transferred to prison, where they were forced to walk with their heads down or else face the threat of being slapped, Byrne noted.

But he stressed that although he felt humiliated, the mistreatment does not compare with the scale of abuse suffered by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities have signalled they could shift to a more offensive approach to the war with the United States as a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Washington expires.

Brigadier General Yadollah Javani, head of the political bureau of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told state television on Sunday night that his forces were ready to take whatever action is needed to defend the country.

Tensions between Iran and the US over control of the Strait of Hormuz have continued to rise despite a ceasefire being agreed between them in June. While the MoU effectively collapsed after fighting restarted last month, the agreement officially expires on Monday.

“The enemy started the war and our efforts have been defensive, although they might take on an offensive aspect,” said Javani.

He did not elaborate on what exactly the offensive measures could entail, but said opponents should expect “strategic surprises”.

IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebbi last week identified US and regional allies’ infrastructure – such as energy networks, power plants and internet-connected systems – as potential targets, if the US hits Iran’s civilian infrastructure.

Hardline Iranian politicians and media outlets have discussed the idea of mounting a ground incursion against US interests in Bahrain and Kuwait if Washington invades Iran.

Analysts have raised questions over the feasibility of that and the risks involved, while there is no recent indication that the US is planning ground operations in Iran.

The Iranian emphasis on offensive deterrence against the US comes after Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, viewed as a hardliner, consolidated his power by appointing several IRGC old guard and confidants to key military and security positions last week.

Khamenei said Major General Ahmad Vahidi’s rise to commander-in-chief of the IRGC must represent a mix of “maximum deterrence” with readiness for “powerful offensive operations against the enemy”.

Vahidi said Khamenei’s leadership and the Iranian armed forces had managed to “bring to its knees the most heavily-armed army in world history” after the US and Israel launched strikes in Iran on February 28, starting fierce fighting between the two sides.

US President Donald Trump reiterated on Friday his claim that Iran was defeated in the war while facing a naval blockade acting as a “wall of steel”. He also said the Strait of Hormuz would “pretty soon” be declared US territory.

The White House later suggested that comment was a joke, but Iran’s army chief, Amir Hatami, reacted by setting a $30,000 reward for any man who kills or captures a US soldier, if they are involved in any ground operation on Iranian soil. Women would be given twice the reward if they managed such a feat, he added.

“Our hands are open in terms of reaching the aggressors and they will become more open through our initiatives,” Hatami said, referencing recent Iranian attacks on US forces in Jordan.

Mohsen Rezaee, who has the powerful position of secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, suggested that the Trump administration might have been considering ground operations on Iranian territory, but held off as a result of “half-baked plans”.

Rezaee said that the US Central Command had refrained from hitting Tehran or northern Iran during the two-week flareup in fighting in July, instead attacking about 50 cities in 15 provinces.

He believed that the purpose of the air raids was to prepare for a ground assault to take control of the Strait of Hormuz and potentially reach nuclear facilities in Isfahan, where highly-enriched uranium is suspected of being buried under the rubble of US strikes.

Bridges, roads, maritime control towers, radar and other coastal installations, and military facilities were struck to cut off logistical supplies to southern Iran, Rezaee noted.

“They had not calculated that to land troops for the Strait of Hormuz, it’s not doable with 40,000-50,000 soldiers, you must bring at least 100,000 people,” he said. “You must cross the Zagros Mountains and be able to pass the Fars province.”

Iranian media and commanders have reported in recent weeks that scenarios are in place to defend individual islands and coastal areas in southern Iran that the US military might consider seizing. They include the critical oil export terminals on Kharg Island.

Iranian territories around the Strait of Hormuz have been reinforced with rapid-response units.

Army spokesman Mohammad-Reza Akraminia said last week that the aim will be to prevent any foreign troops landing on Iranian territory.

“If the Americans enter one of our islands, we will certainly target them on our own islands, let alone on other countries’ soil,” he told state TV.

Authorities have also signalled they are ready for any unrest provoked by separatist groups near Iran’s western borders with Iraq and Turkiye, or in the east with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The IRGC has reportedly bolstered defences and continued to launch missile and drone strikes against armed groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iran shrugs off expired MoU

Javani, the political chief of the IRGC, said in a separate interview on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz will only fully reopen when Washington implements commitments agreed under the MoU signed in June.

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that a two-month window to halt fighting was not specifically mentioned in the MoU text. The ministry also dismissed that the expiration had any particular significance to the war with the US, or Tehran’s ongoing talks with Oman regarding Hormuz.

“It has been proven many times that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not a party to devise its policies under pressure, ultimatums and deadlines. We decide based on our evaluations of what guarantees national interests and security,” Baghaei told reporters during a briefing on Monday.

He said the talks with Oman have so far been delayed in producing an arrangement on the partial reopening of Hormuz due to legal and technical complexities, the multiple actors involved and “ill-wishing parties” seeking to spoil the process.

Parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said during a speech on Sunday night that the MoU was a “document of pride and victory in the field of diplomacy”.

Ghalibaf insisted that the Islamic Republic had emerged “victorious”, both politically and militarily, from the war with the US and Israel.

“I don’t mean that we destroyed their armies, I mean that they attacked us while clearly and repeatedly citing nine objectives, but did not achieve any of these goals at any level. That was the biggest abject failure for the US and the Zionist regime,” he said.

Ghalibaf has not yet managed to convince the Iranian leadership to agree on a long-term diplomatic resolution with the US to end the war.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. The high school football season begins this weekend with zero week games. Let’s review some of the top openers.

Big opening games

Thursday

Corona Centennial vs. Servite at Orange Coast College: It’s a challenging debut for first-year Servite coach Rick Garretson going against a Matt Logan offense that should be one of his best with quarterback Jaden Jefferson, running back Malaki Davis and receiver Quentin Hale. Servite has lots of speed and a trio of outstanding linebackers, plus new quarterback Gino Wang, so let’s see if the Friars can stay close. The pick: Corona Centennial.

Murrieta Valley at Rancho Cucamonga: These two top 25 teams exude toughness. Murrieta Valley is known for daring anyone to stop their running game. Rancho Cucamonga has had a year to get quarterback Trey Towns comfortable with the offense. The pick: Murrieta Valley.

Paraclete vs. St. Bonaventure at Ventura College: Former NFL defensive back Troy Hill, in his second year as head coach, had his first off season and the results should be good. The offense will be explosive behind improving junior quarterback Jaxson Carper and a group of speedy receivers. Angelus League favorite Paraclete has St. Francis transfer Shawn Sanders.

Friday

St. John Bosco at Las Vegas Bishop Gorman: This is a real national championship game. Whomever wins can finish unbeaten by season end. St. John Bosco’s experience on defense should be beneficial, but priority No. 1 is stopping running back Terrance Grant Jr., who has a huge offensive line to support him. Junior quarterback Koa Malau’ulu is in his third season as a starter. The receiving corp was hit hard by graduation but the offensive line should be much improved with the addition of Servite transfer Elisha Mueller. The pick: St. John Bosco.

Crenshaw at Palisades: Robert Garrett has left Crenshaw after 300 career victories. Interim coach Terrence Whitehead and his group of Garrett-trained assistants have worked hard to increase the roster level. There’s lots of athleticism at quarterback with Ethan Grant, a transfer from Los Angeles, and returnee Danniel Flowers. This is the first campus football game at Palisades since the Palisades Fire in January of 2025, so emotions will be high. The pick: Crenshaw.

Chaparral at Mission Viejo: Get ready for an entertaining TV opener in which both teams have a terrific group of receivers, so it will come down to who can protect their quarterback best. That’s where Mission Viejo has an advantage with probably the best offensive line since coach Chad Johnson arrived. The pick: Mission Viejo.

Loyola at Crean Lutheran: The Cubs go on the road to face a veteran team that has added lots of transfers, and the only question is how many will be eligible come game time. There are five Crean Lutheran players committed to Arizona. The pick: Crean Lutheran.

Gardena Serra vs. Palos Verdes at El Camino College: Get ready for Serra to pound the ball with its five returning offensive linemen and new running back AJ McBean. Palos Verdes has four-year starter Ryan Rakowski at quarterback to work his magic. Look for Serra’s speed advantage to be tough to stop. The pick: Serra.

Tustin at San Clemente: The Tritons won their game in Hawaii. Their defense faces a challenge from a Tustin team that has standout receiver Hayden Koo among a number of college prospect. But with Jaxson Rex leading the way, San Clemente figures to get some turnovers. The pick: San Clemente.

Here’s the complete zero week schedule.

All-City linebacker De’Andre Kirkpatrick of Crenshaw has grown to 6 feet 3, 220 pounds entering his senior season.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

The Times’ nine-part series previewing some of Southern California’s best football players continues on Monday with a profile of Crenshaw linebacker De’Andre Kirkpatrick, who had to overcome the loss of his mother and father within weeks of each other. Here’s the profile.

If you missed any of the profiles, here’s the link.

Southern California teams traveled to Hawaii last week and came away 9-0. Chaminade, Villa Park, San Juan Hills, Viewpoint, Edison, Beaumont, San Clemente, Newport Harbor and Capistrano Valley all won their openers.

Chaminade receiver Andrew Cordero had two touchdown catches from sophomore quarterback Jeremy Mellalieu in a 38-9 win over Leilehua.

San Juan Hills beat Castle 67-0. Nikos Ioja rushed for 93 yards.

Bellflower showed off two promising freshmen receivers in a scrimmage: Ke’Ondre Smith and Ryan Clark. They could help with Austin Miller out with an injury.

JSerra quarterback Kate Meier reaches across the goal line for the winning touchdown an instant before her flag is pulled.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Defending Southern Section Division 1 champion JSerra showed Saturday that it remains the team to beat in 2026 by winning the Chargers tournament Gold Division championship over Newport Harbor.

Sophomore quarterback Kate Meier and a terrific defense sparked the Lions to victory. JSerra defeated Orange Lutheran in the semifinals in a rematch of last year’s Division 1 final.

Right before its opening game of the season and its first game in school history, Sierra Canyon was able to get eligible quarterback Makena Cook, who transferred from Orange Lutheran. The Trailblazers played in the Chargers tournament and should be much stronger when the transfer sit-out period ends for those who did not change residences.

Here’s The Times’ top 10 Southern California rankings.

Girls volleyball

Coach Morgan Wijay of Harvard-Westlake has her team playing well to start the girls volleyball season.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

In a season-opening matchup between reigning state champions, Harvard-Westlake pushed Mater Dei to five sets before senior outside hitter Westley Matavao took control in the Monarchs’ 26-28, 25-18, 25-19, 17-25, 15-8 victory in Studio City. The UCLA commit had 16 kills, 19 digs and six aces while Cal-bound middle blocker Emma Kingston had 13 kills for Mater Dei, which has won the CIF Open Division state championship twice in the last three years.

Brooke Cotter and Ruby Sampson had 12 kills apiece and Princeton commit Sophia Cotter added 11 kills for Harvard-Westlake, which won the Division 1 state title last fall under first-year coach Morgan Wijay, who had spent the previous 10 seasons at Alemany and guided that program to section titles in 2021 and 2022. The Wolverines finished third in the Mission League last year after being swept twice by Sierra Canyon and Marymount and are projected to be third again.

Mater Dei is the heavy favorite to repeat as Trinity League champion having added five transfers — two of those from its own league.

Sierra Canyon won the prestigious Ann Kang tournament in Hawaii, beating one top team after another.

Here’s the girls’ volleyball preview from The Times.

Jake Bauers’ journey

Former Marina first baseman Jake Bauers has 21 home runs for the Milwaukee Brewers.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

From not making the varsity at Marina High until his junior year to hitting 21 home runs this season for the Milwaukee Brewers to marrying the girl he met in 10th grade, Jake Bauers’ journey has been quite rewarding. He went four for four on Sunday at Dodger Stadium against the Dodgers.

Here’s a look after speaking with him last week at Petco Park.

Interesting nicknames

High schools sometimes come up with the strangest nicknames for their sports teams.

Now someone has come up with the 50 most interesting nicknames.

Here’s the report.

CIF media rights contract with PlayOn Sports and the NFHS Network.

(Los Angeles Times)

The CIF has reached agreement with PlayOn Sports, the owner of MaxPreps, the NFHS Network and GoFan, on a 10-year, $11.1 million broadcast rights deal.

Here’s the report.

Trouble at El Camino Real

El Camino Real players celebrate winning a 10th City Section baseball title at Dodger Stadium.

(Craig Weston)

As if replacing its executive director and assistant principal in charge of athletics wasn’t enough summer drama for El Camino Real, now the school has put on leave multiple coaches and launched an investigation over a dispute about first-aid cards and why they couldn’t be found in the Red Cross database.

Here’s the report.

Notes . . .

Multiple El Camino Real coaches have been placed on administrative leave because of a school investigation. The school has been in turmoil since the summer when the executive director and assistant principal in charge of athletics were both ousted. Here’s the report.…

Former Crespi pitcher Tim Leveque is the interim pitching coach for the Angels….

La Mirada Junior Little League won the World Series championship, beating Taipei 6-3 on a 10th-inning three-run home run from Jaylen Valdez, who is one of seven players on the team already enrolled as freshmen at La Mirada High….

Infielder Ian Nunez from La Mirada has committed to Cal State Northridge….

St. Bernard will be getting a new all-weather turf field in 2027….

Linebacker Ezekiel Su’a of Mater Dei has committed to Dartmouth….

Catcher Maddie Schepp from Torrance has committed to Fresno State softball….

Jaylee Moore of Etiwanda has committed to Hawaii for women’s basketball….

Arcadia will not use its longtime nickname Apaches this school year as it transitions to a different mascot after a new state law. It will use only Arcadia this year.

From the archives: Cody Fajardo

Former Servite quarterback Cody Fajardo has found a home in the Canadian Football League. He was MVP of the Grey Cup in 2023 in leading the Montreal Alouettes to the championship. He’s with the Edmonton Elks, his fifth team. This season, he’s completing 70% of his passes.

The 34-year-old helped Servite win the 2009 Southern Section Division 1 championship, then became starting quarterback at Nevada. He’s always been known for his ability to pass and run while showing toughness.

Here’s a story from 2009 on Fajardo’s magic as a high school quarterback.

Here’s a story from 2023 after he won the Grey Cup.

Recommendations

From MLB.com, a story on former Thousand Oaks shortstop Jacob Wilson setting a major league record with 111 consecutive games without making an error.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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Italian media reports the Cagliari forward rescued after swallowing a lot of water in a swimming pool in Porto Cervo.

French footballer Yael Trepy, who plays for Serie A club Cagliari, is in intensive care, the Italian club has confirmed, with media reporting that the 20-year-old nearly drowned in a swimming pool.

Cagliari said that Trepy “is currently in intensive care at the hospital in Sassari,” adding that the club remains “in close contact with the medical staff and the player’s family”.

“The club asks for privacy to be respected and will provide further updates as soon as possible,” Cagliari said in a statement, without disclosing the circumstances of the incident.

Italian media reported that Trepy had to be rescued on Sunday after swallowing a lot of water in a swimming pool in Porto Cervo, northern Sardinia.

Doctors placed him in a medically induced coma, the reports added.

Trepy, a forward who scored once in eight Serie A appearances last season, joined Cagliari’s academy in 2022 from Paris-based team Union Sportive Creteil.

Cagliari were last in action on Friday, beating Arezzo 1-0 in the Coppa Italia, with Trepy playing for 54 minutes.

During the two most recent major Middle East conflicts it has been involved in, the U.S. Army swatted down more than 1,400 Iranian missiles and drones, according to the officer in charge of the Army’s air and missile defense. The figures provided by Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, commander of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, and Joint Task Force-Gold, offer new context about the number of Army interceptions during these fights. His comments also come amid concerns about the tremendous expenditure of U.S. interceptors that has exacerbated the stress on America’s magazine depth of these high-end defensive weapons, an issue that TWZ has raised frequently for years. 

“For the last 14 months,” the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command (AAMDC), based at Fort Bliss, Texas, “has been in the largest air and missile defense fight in U.S. history,” Rafferty said during a panel at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium (SMD) in Huntsville, Alabama, attended by TWZ. “Over the 12-day war [between Iran and Israel], they successfully engaged 125 ballistic missiles, and during Operation Epic Fury, over 1,200 ballistic, cruise and UAS threats have been neutralized.”

The 32nd AAMDC, which is responsible for all U.S. Army air and missile defense in the region, “adapted and innovated to overcome advanced threats,” Rafferty added. “The THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense], the Patriot, and our counter-UAS systems are the envy of the world, and that’s due in no small part to some of the efforts of the organizations that are represented by the leaders in the front row here, but also by the contributions of many of our industry partners and industry teammates here.”

Though he didn’t mention how many interceptions were performed by the U.S. Navy’s ship-launched SM-3 and SM-6 missiles, or Air Force air-to-air missiles and rockets, Rafferty’s comments added insight into the extent of the U.S. military’s defense of the region during numerous Iranian missile and drone barrages. It represented just a part of a much larger regional effort involving several nations that came under Iranian attack.

In May, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), testified before Congress that Epic Fury “validated, at full scale and in actual combat, a combined Middle East Air Defense (MEAD) network – a concept the region had exercised for years but never fully operationalized.”

“During OEF, for the first time in history, U.S. air defenders stood shoulder to shoulder with partner air defenders across national systems… Over the course of the operation, this integrated architecture intercepted over 6,000 one-way attack drones and more than 1,500 ballistic missiles aimed at U.S. forces, Israel, and our Arab partners.”

Cooper did not break down how many interceptions were carried out by each country, but the figures provided by Rafferty suggest that the Army was responsible for about 16% of all of them. CENTCOM declined our request for the numbers of interceptions carried out by the Navy and Air Force.

As a result of this intense air and missile defense activity, partner nations, minus Israel which uses its own systems, have had their missile stocks backfilled by the U.S. due to the massive consumption of interceptors. It’s also worth noting that it is common to use multiple interceptors against each target to increase kill probability, so one target often doesn’t mean one missile was used to shoot it down.

LIVE: Head of Central Command testifies before Senate committee on Iran war

As for the 12-Day War, Iran fired about 550 ballistic missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel, according to the IDF. About 90% were intercepted by the U.S. and Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported at the time. While the Army engaged 125 Iranian missiles, the U.S. Navy played a large role in swatting down these threats as well. It is unclear just how many interceptions the Navy performed during that conflict, but former acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby told the Senate Appropriations Committee in June 2025 that the service fired interceptors at incoming Iranian threats “at an alarming rate.”

As we noted earlier in this story, we have been sounding the alarm about magazine depth for years, especially in regard to America’s air and missile defenses. In fact, we laid out in detail these exact concerns and how they would be a major issue in war with Iran just prior to the conflict starting in a feature you can read in full here.

The U.S. has burned through hundreds of THAAD and Patriot interceptors since a shaky ceasefire went into effect on April 8, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) latest assessment. CSIS was updating a previous analysis of munitions expenditures during Epic Fury that you can read more about here.

According to CSIS, the U.S. had about 2,300 Patriot interceptors in its inventories before Epic Fury, 1,030 by the time the ceasefire was agreed to, and between 759 and 827 as of July 27.

As for THAADs, there were 452 interceptors in the U.S. inventory before Epic Fury, between 232 and 262 on the date of the ceasefire, and between 234 and 278 as of July 27.

During the SMD panel, Rafferty addressed magazine depth concerns but did not provide any granularity about the number of interceptors used. The bottom line, he said, is that THAAD and Patriot munitions are just one part of an overall defense.

“I cannot add anything to the emphasis on magazine depth… or for the need for cheaper and wide-ranging mix of interceptors,” he explained. “I mean that couldn’t be made more loud and clear from the highest levels of our government. But I do want to highlight the need that interceptors alone won’t do it, right? We need more of a comprehensive missile defeat strategy that focuses on interceptors, equally so on non-kinetic effects, both electronic warfare and directed energy.”

“And the type of targeting C2 enabled by a data strategy, and a cross-domain solution that works that helps us take data from TS [top secret], move it down to secret, and even down to CUI [controlled unclassified information], that’ll enable us to use that data to make decisions to engage targets faster,” he continued. “That’s the kind of comprehensive missile defeat strategy that isn’t just about more interceptors. It’s about integrating other capabilities, non-kinetics, and also decision-making into that.”

For the moment, things have calmed between the U.S. and Iran, with no major attacks against each other for several weeks. Media reports have suggested that President Trump has shifted to economic, rather than military pressure against Iran in large measure over concerns about the ability to sustain a conflict with greatly diminished magazine depth.

Still, Trump has been unable to compel Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, pare its ballistic missile stocks or stop supporting proxies like the Houthis and Hezbollah. Given that, it remains possible the notoriously impatient president could resume hostilities at any time. So too could the Iranians, who have done it before.

Meanwhile, the heavy use of these expensive, hard-to-build, long-lead-time weapons raises additional questions about how the U.S. can defend itself from another major threat, and especially should a war break out with China. 

Rafferty didn’t bring up concerns about whether the supply of air defense munitions and general capacity was sufficient for a China fight, nor was he asked about it in the ensuing question and answer session. Still, he did imply that the U.S. Army’s air defenders were under significant stress battling Iran.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

I’m confident that I’ll make my way through The Times’ best breakfast burrito list and devour another couple dozen worthy candidates before I’ll ever have the chance to ride on that chronically delayed LAX people mover.

“Ninety-nine percent done”? Sounds like the answer my kids would give me the night before a big homework assignment was due.

Maybe our next breakfast burrito list can be “Best breakfast burritos near John Wayne Airport.” Or Hollywood Burbank. Or Long Beach. The possibilities are endless. No doubt we have got time until that “one percent” gets checked off.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of the Envelope newsletter, and the guy pondering a “DTF Los Angeles” where the characters inch along the LAX horseshoe, kindling all manner of sinister thoughts.

Cover story: ‘DTF St. Louis’

(Erik Carter / For The Times)

Are TV viewers a little more judgmental when it comes to complicated women?

Linda Cardellini would always know where someone was on their “DTF St. Louis” viewing journey based on their vibe when they approached her.

“If they were halfway through the show, they usually weren’t warming up to Carol and you could feel that energy,” Cardellini says, talking with me for a recent Envelope cover story on the limited series. “But if they were through with the show, that energy changed. Sometimes you could tell they felt bad that they didn’t like her in the first place.”

Carol, as you know if you’ve watched “DTF,” the season’s best limited series, is an overworked suburban mother forced to umpire Little League games because her job at Purina doesn’t pay enough to cover the bills. She’s married to gentle giant Floyd (David Harbour), an ASL interpreter and a sensitive stepfather to her son. But it’s a sexless marriage, so she turns to local weatherman Clark (Jason Bateman), who possesses a vitality long absent in her husband.

“DTF St. Louis” is ostensibly a murder mystery. Floyd dies in the first episode. Writer-director Steven Conrad employs a fair bit of misdirection, pointing our suspicions first to Clark and then to Carol. Since money is tight and Floyd had an insurance policy, Carol is a logical enough person of interest. We learn that she has a criminal record. And she was cheating.

“When I was reading the episodes, I thought, ‘Oh, OK. It’s going to be Carol, even though there’s so many clues telling you that it’s not her,” Cardellini says. “But we’re conditioned to think that. Like, ‘She had to be after the money,’ even though she never accepts any gifts as she’s struggling financially. Everyone just believed the worst in her.”

Granted, Carol could be a little brusque with service workers, and her passive-aggressive approach to police questioning (“Can you speak up?”) was a master class in control and manipulation that I plan to use if I’m ever interrogated for some crime I’m sure I did not do. (Unless it’s somehow related to picking someone up at LAX. Then all bets are off.)

Reviews for “DTF” too often would note how it’s a poignant look at male loneliness in the suburbs when, in fact, Carol is the most isolated character on the show.

“Carol is immensely lonely, but she’s so burdened by the heavy demand of keeping this household afloat that she doesn’t have the luxury to notice that she doesn’t have a friend,” says Conrad. “The job of bailing water is hers alone.”

In that respect, Carol brings to mind Skyler White on “Breaking Bad” and Carmela Soprano from “The Sopranos,” forlorn women dealing with the man-child they married and getting flak from viewers for being a killjoy.

By the end of “DTF,” we find we should have been on Carol’s side all along.

“It’s a beautiful magic trick,” says co-star Bateman.

Just the latest feat of illusion from the talented Cardellini, one that could result in her first Emmy win next month.

Senior Hamas officials, including the movement’s political bureau chief Khalil al-Hayya, held talks with US envoy Jared Kushner in Egypt to discuss disarmament and the future administration of the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas sources cited by Asharq on Sunday.

The sources said the meeting took place in El Alamein with the participation of senior officials from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, which have been involved in mediation efforts over Gaza.

According to the report, the Hamas delegation discussed its position on a proposed roadmap for Gaza and expressed its commitment to provisions concerning the inventory and storage of weapons and the transfer of governing authority in the Strip.

The sources also said Hamas expressed readiness to participate in Palestinian elections and operate as a political party within the Palestinian political system.

READ: Kushner accuses Netanyahu of obstructing US Gaza plan

Kushner reportedly stressed that eliminating security threats originating from Gaza and ensuring that the territory is free of weapons were fundamental requirements for advancing the proposed political process.

Hamas, in turn, sought guarantees regarding implementation of the agreement, including a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a comprehensive ceasefire, and assurances that the implementation process would not be delayed or obstructed.

The Hamas delegation also called for the rapid transfer of administrative responsibilities in Gaza to a Palestinian national committee or technocratic government, alongside the start of recovery and reconstruction efforts.

According to the report, mediators had informed Hamas beforehand that Kushner wanted to meet the movement’s leadership before traveling to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hamas reportedly viewed the meeting as an opportunity to present its position directly and address outstanding disagreements over implementation of the proposed Gaza roadmap.

READ: El Sisi stresses need to resolve regional crises to preserve stability in meeting with Kushner

Does Guimaraes complete the midfield? Can Arsenal finally win the Champions League? And who is set for a breakout season?

Arsenal begin their first Premier League title defence in 22 years on Friday with a home game against newly promoted Coventry.

The Gunners, who lost in the Champions League final on penalties last season, are also hoping this is the season they can finally be crowned champions of Europe.

So the English champions face plenty of key talking points before the season – here are the five key ones.

Can Arsenal successfully defend title for the first time in 90 years?

With major rivals City and Liverpool rebuilding under Enzo Maresca and Andoni Iraola respectively, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta’s methods are tested and trusted after ⁠nearly seven years at the helm.

His well-established side will be confident they can defy history and win back-to-back titles for the first time since 1935.

They have also strengthened their squad with a few key signings – not least bringing in Bruno Guimaraes to bolster the midfield and replacing the outgoing Leandro Trossard with a likely upgrade in Greek winger Christos Tzolis.

But centre-back William Saliba’s long-term back injury will be a big blow for a side that won the league while conceding just 27 goals.

And the Gunners’ reliance on set-pieces may face more scrutiny from referees this season after some rule changes and some contentious flashpoints last season.

“Now, we have to show that we belong to this level and we want to increase and take this football club to a different dimension,” Arteta said.

His side were certainly impressive in their first competitive game of the season, sending a clear message of intent to their rivals as they cruised to a 3-0 win over Manchester City in the Community Shield on Sunday.

Can Arsenal finally win the Champions League?

Arsenal are the club with the most European Cup/Champions League appearances in history without ever lifting the trophy – 226 games and counting – and last season’s final loss to PSG on penalties in Budapest will sting for a long time.

They had built the run to Budapest on defensive resilience, conceding only six goals in 14 European matches, and led through Kai Havertz inside six minutes. However, PSG equalised from the penalty spot and eventually won the shootout 4-3, with Gabriel Magalhaes missing the decisive kick.

PSG are now back-to-back champions chasing a three-peat, and Bayern Munich ran PSG very close in their semifinal. But Arteta’s side have shown they can compete with anyone in Europe – they just need to find that extra gear.

Does Guimaraes complete the midfield?

Arsenal’s marquee signing of the transfer window was Guimaraes from Newcastle for 75 million pounds ($101.5m). The versatile Brazilian captained his previous club and brings all-round quality and leadership to the Arsenal midfield, easing some of the pressure on Declan Rice, who struggled with injuries during the end of the season and at the World Cup.

Arteta seems to have little doubt that Guimaraes can adapt quickly to a title-defending side. He certainly slotted in well during the Community Shield win over City, impressing with some key tackles and spraying around some beautiful passes.

“He’s a warrior with a tremendous quality as well and intuition and leadership and charisma that is going to help us, that is going to really ignite something different in the team,” ‌Arteta said.

“He’s going to push everybody inside the team as well and that’s the type of player that we need.”

Can Gyokeres set up a level?

Arsenal fans were hoping that Viktor Gyokeres would be the club’s first reliable number nine for many years.

But while his first season delivered 14 Premier League goals and 21 in all competitions, it was a solid if unspectacular return.

With Arsenal having strengthened around him rather than bringing in competition up front, the pressure is on Gyokeres to kick on from a decent debut year into a prolific one.

Is Max Dowman set for a breakthrough season?

Dowman turned 16 in December, and the attacking midfielder scored a sensational stoppage-time winner against Everton in March to become the youngest scorer in Premier League history.

Arteta has been careful to strike a balance between exposure and protection, pointing to school commitments and workload management as much as footballing readiness in limiting Dowman’s appearances.

The youngster is likely to feature more in cup competitions this season, but if he performs to his apparent potential, Arteta may even feel compelled to play him in some of the biggest games of the season.

Iran used multiple drones to help target the U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle that was brought down over Iran in April of this year, a new report claims. According to an unnamed senior U.S. military official speaking to The New York Times, the Iranians employed tactics inspired by Ukraine in its war with Russia, leading to the high-profile combat loss of a Strike Eagle and a daring U.S. Special Operations Forces mission to retrieve the missing Weapon Systems Officer (WSO).

The military official told the newspaper that the Pentagon concluded that Iranian drones fed “critical pieces of information to Iranian commanders that helped them target the F-15E.” Thanks to these drones, Iranian forces were provided with the jet’s GPS location, speed, and direction, the same official said.

The New York Times reports that the F-15E’s defensive countermeasures suite provided only half a second of warning before the shoulder-launched missile — thought to be Chinese-made — struck its target. In fact, it would have provided none, since the F-15E is not equipped with missile approach warning systems (MAWS) to detect incoming infrared-guided threats.

While the pilot was recovered not too long after ejecting, there followed a frantic effort to find and retrieve the WSO, a rescue mission that involved hundreds of troops, scores of aircraft, and diversion operations over more than a half dozen different parts of Iran. The effort also saw the loss of a second aircraft, an A-10 attack jet in the air, as well as two MC-130J Commando II special operations cargo planes and several H-6 Little Bird special operations helicopters that were destroyed on the ground.

The latest account comes after a reported testimony from the Strike Eagle pilot, who described a “jellyfish-like” swarm of drones in the sky, moments before they ejected from the stricken jet. The pilot saw “multiple drones interconnected and moving as one with smaller drones below the bigger drones like legs,” CNN had previously reported, based on statements it said came from four unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Another source told the broadcaster that the same pilot described seeing a “minefield of drones” in the air.

We previously analyzed the possibilities behind this seemingly bizarre phenomenon here.

While they both come with the usual caveats, the two reports together paint an interesting picture of what might have happened over southern Iran on April 3, during the U.S.-Israeli war with that country.

Provided the available accounts are even partially accurate, the information is slowly painting a picture that suggests Iranian use of drone-based airborne sensors to help bring down an F-15E penetrating its airspace.

Previous reports had suggested that the apparent ‘jellyfish’ drone swarm could have been some kind of networked formation, while also emphasizing that the pilot had been concussed and it may have been unclear exactly what they had seen. It is also very possible that a drone system unrelated to whatever the localized ‘jellyfish’ sighting was was actually responsible for spotting the F-15E, and the two are unrelated.

At this point, it should be noted that, while the term ‘drone swarm’ is often used loosely in media reporting, having a large number of drones flying in roughly coordinated formations doesn’t necessarily mean Iran possesses a sophisticated autonomous cooperative swarming technology, although this isn’t much of a reach.

While talk of drone swarms is intriguing, even a single drone with a camera could have provided an alert that the jet was headed in a certain direction and at an approximate speed and altitude. Using multiple sensor-equipped drones would meanwhile provide commanders with a distributed network of relatively expendable airborne sensors that could possibly spot aircraft, even if doing so would provide rudimentary situational awareness information that can be used, at best, to assist in targeting.

As an asymmetric ad-hoc air defense solution, using even drones equipped with basic sensors to spot aircraft could offer a fallback, relatively resilient option, especially if Iran’s conventional air defense architecture, which relies on more expensive and more vulnerable radars and other sensors as well as command posts, was largely destroyed. This was indeed the case after extensive U.S. and Israeli attacks. Still, a spotting network of drones would be far less capable than those traditional systems, with luck being a large factor in spotting anything. A more advanced, networked system is something of a different story, but that would require a higher level of technology and would need complex command and control infrastructure behind it.

Drones could also be paired with payloads used to detect a hostile aircraft’s radar and other radio-frequency emissions, which could give away their presence and potentially geolocate them. This is especially true when drones are working in a network over a wider area. Ground stations can also be used in this manner, but they do not benefit from the line-of-sight at altitude, flexibility, and the possibility of pairing these operations with airborne decoys to stimulate an enemy aircraft’s radar, thus giving its location away.

Again, provided the account is accurate, many questions still remain about the kinds of sensors on the drone or drones, and how tracking information was obtained and then transmitted to what was, in the end, a relatively inexpensive shooter in the form of a shoulder-launched missile. But once again, simple spotting networks used to spot and track hostile aircraft are an art form going back to the dawn of military aviation. Putting parts of that in the air aboard rudimentary drones is hardly a complex achievement.

As for the shoulder-launched missile that appears to have brought down the F-15E, Iran has no shortage of these, widely dispersed, and these are known weapons of opportunity. They were also likely pre-placed in areas where U.S. and Israeli warplanes were known to be penetrating, especially since the rest of the Iranian air defense system had been extensively taken down already.

The claim that Ukrainian experiences helped inform the Iranian tactics is also interesting. It is unclear if this relates to a specific drone-based sensor network, or whether it is a reference to the Ukrainian use of drones more generally.

At the very least, Ukraine has repeatedly demonstrated how relatively inexpensive drones can perform reconnaissance, detect movement, track targets, identify air-defense activity, and help cue more expensive weapons. This is in addition to them being used as effectors themselves, or carrying weapon payloads. Ukraine also pioneered interceptor drones, as well, which also act as airborne spotters. With so many U.S. and Israeli drones to hunt over Iran, the lessons of interceptor drones from Ukraine would not have been lost on Iran, especially considering the country was the first to build and deploy a so-called ‘loitering SAM.’

Meanwhile, the broader lessons from the war in Ukraine include recognizing the value of layered networks of relatively cheap sensors, communications, decoys, and shooters, rather than relying on more expensive and vulnerable solutions alone. Iran clearly had planned for the demise of their traditional air defense network, so fallback concepts like using drones to spot enemy aircraft shouldn’t be a surprise.

Nevertheless, the new report combined with the ‘jellyfish’ sighting provides another fascinating, but still puzzling layer to one of the most dramatic air combat incidents of recent times.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The nearly nine-month extended deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East has triggered a mental health crisis among the crew so intense that some sailors have tried to jump overboard, according to some US media reports.

Family members of the exhausted military crew on board the flagship aircraft carrier, reportedly located in the Gulf region, say there are food shortages, while broken toilets and showers have contributed to unsanitary conditions and poor health.

More than 5,000 staff members have been on board the vessel, which has been conducting maritime security and blockade operations at present around the Strait of Hormuz, for that time. It set sail on November 21, 2025 from its homeport of San Diego for an extended deployment to the Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Since then, the ship has made just one single-day port stop at Naval Base Guam from December 11-12. The lack of port stops is a major issue for a ship the size and complexity of the USS Abraham Lincoln, experts say.

As US President Donald Trump and his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, declare the United States is ready to continue an “indefinite” blockade on Iranian ports in the Gulf, we look at how this compares with other lengthy aircraft carrier deployments.

What is happening on board the USS Abraham Lincoln?

Reports by two US publications that cover military affairs, the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, last week quoted family members of military personnel on board the vessel who said they were suffering from declining mental health and morale, and cases of suicidal ideation.

The Navy Times spoke on record with one sailor’s wife, identified as Annabelle Loma, who said he had attempted to jump overboard amid what she described as “severe burnout”.

The reports prompted urgent questions from US lawmakers. On Sunday, Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), reportedly visited the USS Lincoln.

He praised the crew and stated on social media that “service at sea for long periods isn’t for everyone, while claiming the ship has the lowest number of mental health-related cases of the navy’s 11 active aircraft carriers. “It is uniquely challenging and tough, and every single one of us, including me, reacts to stressors in different ways,” he said.

But there is growing concern among Republican and Democratic lawmakers over what they see as a lack of accountability after Hegseth dismissed mental health reports last week as “completely misrepresented”.

When Trump was asked last week whether the USS Lincoln had been at sea for too long, he told reporters: “No, not nearly long enough.”

The USS Lincoln mission was supposed to end in May but has been extended repeatedly since then.

Last week, it emerged that another ship, the USS George Washington, has been rerouted from its position in the Pacific and will arrive in the Gulf within a week to take over duties from the Lincoln.

How long can US aircraft carrier deployments be?

The longest aircraft carrier deployment since the Vietnam War was the USS Gerald R Ford’s 326-day mission, which began in June 2025, under Trump’s second term in the White House.

That mission included NATO exercises in the Mediterranean, support for the US military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and operations in the Red Sea during the US-Israel war on Iran.

After beginning its mission as a routine deployment to the Asia Pacific region, the Ford then moved into the South China Sea for security operations, before being deployed to the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman to help the US enforce its naval blockade of the Iranian ports.

During this time, the USS Ford met several technical problems, including an onboard fire, which also triggered congressional scrutiny back home.

Lengthy deployments during the Vietnam War

Some of the longest aircraft carrier deployments in US history took place in and around the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War, with the USS Midway operating for 332 days, the USS Coral Sea operating for 329 days and the USS Saratoga operating for 308 days.

Similar to the USS Lincoln, they faced issues as well. Reports said the intense flight schedule of the active air combat during the Vietnam War pushed crew and operations to their limits.

While there are a number of lengthy aircraft carrier deployments from other countries, they pale in comparison to the US Navy’s record.

Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov conducted a five-month mission to the Syrian coast which began in October 2016, but suffered several technical breakdowns, including aircraft losses.

The United Kingdom’s HMS Queen Elizabeth completed a seven-month deployment in 2021, which included combat strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria, despite significant breakdowns due to engineering issues.

Why is this issue so critical?

Many lawmakers have raised questions over whether the US can maintain an “indefinite” blockade in the Gulf if conditions on board a flagship aircraft carrier are so dire.

In a letter to Hegseth last week, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal raised the alarm over reports of deteriorating mental health on board, as well as shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, an increase in safety incidents and even disruptions to mail services, through which those on board receive care packages.

“These reports warrant immediate attention, but they also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force, particularly as this administration repeatedly commits US forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations,” Blumenthal wrote.

Experts say the lack of port stops is a major issue for the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Harlan Ullman, a retired senior naval officer and chairman of the strategic advisory firm Killowen Group, told Al Jazeera that ships require onshore care to keep advanced technology operational over long periods.

“Ships need maintenance, particularly ships that are extremely complicated with very advanced weapon systems such as nuclear-powered carriers with very advanced systems, and there are things that you cannot do in terms of maintenance under way,” Ullman said.

“There are lots of things that you can do at sea, but there are far more things that can only be done in port,” he pointed out.

Ullman noted that extended deployments “erode the readiness and capability of that ship the longer it’s at sea, and it lacks the ability to repair and extend maintenance”.

He added that the Trump administration must prioritise naval readiness over politics, saying “this is a national issue, not a local one; and the administration should not be so defensive. It should say, ‘OK, we’ll see what’s going on, and then if there are some issues, we’ll take care of them.’”

What are the drawbacks of deploying aircraft carriers?

Aircraft carriers are built to be on deployment for many months at a time. However, that comes with a high cost, as extended cruises increase the risk of technical breakdowns and can also lead to reduced staff morale and mental health concerns.

Large aircraft carriers are expensive. The USS Abraham Lincoln cost $2.2bn to build in 1989, and it costs tens of millions of dollars to operate on a daily basis.

Recent conflicts in the Red Sea have also underscored the vulnerability of large aircraft carriers. Houthi rebels, who do not possess a formal navy, have nevertheless managed to put significant pressure on large US Navy aircraft carriers operating near the limits of their missile range.

At one point during the US-Israel war on Iran, the USS Gerald Ford was forced to sail hundreds of miles away from the Iranian coast to reduce the risk of being hit by missiles, limiting its effectiveness.