Jennifer Griffin
@JenGriffinFNC · Diplomatic & national-security press — DC
Jennifer Griffin is Fox News's chief Pentagon correspondent, regarded across the spectrum as gold-standard on defense sourcing.
This is a pretty stunning admission by the Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, whose nomination is hung up in Congress, about how Iranian forces “blew the hell out of (US Navy’s 5th Fleet base in) Bahrain.” Haven’t heard a senior US official admit this on the record until now. See Epoch Times interview with Cao below.
US official says “100 percent of US troops accounted for in Jordan” and no American casualties, despite reports from the region suggesting otherwise.
Senior US officials to Fox: US military has struck targets near Kharg Island and Jask. The targets include Iranian oil tankers. This is part of a larger effort to squeeze Iran economically. The strategy includes sinking and disabling Iranian crude oil tankers.
According to multiple senior US defense officials, this is a drone made by Anduril known as a “large displacement unmanned underwater vehicle.” It is in a commercially available configuration, not carrying classified information. It is radar and sonar equipped, but does not collect sensitive or classified information. It is a “commercially off the shelf” drone. It malfunctioned and has been dead in the water for over a day. “It may have drifted into Iranian waters and the Iranians may have it but it has nothing sensitive onboard,” one US official told me. The drone had been in use in the Strait of Hormuz “for a long time.” For context the US Navy had 23 drones on, under or above the water in the Strait of Hormuz yesterday. “It probably died from overuse,” one official told me. “The Iranians captured a broken drone.” I am told the video released by the IRGC looks like the Anduril drone that is missing. MORE: According to 3 well placed sources, the drone was NOT intercepted by the Iranians. This is not a weapon and has no sensitive technology on board. It is even used by NOAA for ocean floor mapping. The Iranians had nothing to do with it stopping working. The owners of the drone are able to delete all the data onboard remotely. It is easily replaced, according to multiple US officials.
US forces targeted Iranian minelaying infrastructure in Larak Island strike. Our report @SpecialReport tonight https://t.co/NArfWUNQGV #FoxNews
Family members and sailors say months at sea with no end in sight to a grueling Middle East deployment have intensified worries about mental health and the risk of self-harm aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Source - Stars and Stripes