[Do not bypass obscenity filters -- Staff]

Yeah pretty incredible if we hit one that had a bunch of oil in it.

Video shows a National Iranian Tanker company VLCC. There are only two that fit that exact layout & load condition at Kharg right now. She's laden with cargo and that's not the usual target criteria as CENTCOM mostly retaliate against empty NITC tankers. No visible smoke either. https://t.co/QQRoasNbVv

— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) September 5, 2026

Just the engine room no doubt, but still. This one obviously was not laden with oil but...not just the engine room.

🚨 BREAKING: US forces have just DESTROYED 3 Iranian oil tankers after Iran attempted to fire ballistic missiles at 2 U.S. Navy warships, per CENTCOM

A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided missile destroyer were targeted, but were NOT hit, and no Americans were injured

“Let the… pic.twitter.com/ioxnHNnR5V

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 5, 2026

That's six tankers Iran has lost within a week. That is going to sting like hell.

Do we know how many they have (or had I should say)?

Google search says they have 22 remaining trapped in the strait that have not been hit yet, 6 confirmed hits. Edit to clarify that they started with 28.

Kind of seems our strategy is working. Just a matter of time before they cry UNCLE.

Using ballistic missiles to successfully target naval ships at range is a very difficult thing to do even for a highly advanced military. Iran attempting this is lunacy on their part. Practically zero chance of a hit or even accurate targeting.

Requires not only up to the second intelligence on target location but also trajectory changes and guidance mid-flight as the target is moving. Even a large ship moving at relatively slow speed would be many kilometers away from the target area by the time a missile is launched and arrives.

MaxPower said:

---

Do we know how many they have (or had I should say)?

---

They have quite a few via their 'shadow' tanker fleet though. That however I think is going to run dry shortly, even though Chinese buyers finally upped their purchases over the past week (they have been oddly very down for many months). The Iranian 'at sea' total is difficult to swag at but low and getting lower as they can't load/ship more via Hormuz, so empty tankers out east/south of the blockade are functionally useless.

🚨 The Islamic Republic’s oil lifeline is being strangled at sea.

Its exports have collapsed, its tankers are trapped on both sides of the blockade, and the hard currency keeping the Islamic Republic afloat is rapidly drying up.

Iran loaded roughly 2 million barrels per day in… pic.twitter.com/9Beh9qi1gv

— The Iran Watcher (@TheIranWatcher) September 4, 2026

And it's exceptionally difficult to track/label where the Chicom's get their oil from, so I don't really trust any of the figures on social media/from analysts. Example I have read discussing the 'problem' of figuring that out:

Quote:

---

Chinese customs have shown zero oil imports from Iran for years. Tanker trackers tell a different story over a million barrels per day at points last year, now down to roughly 530k bpd in August per Kpler, one of the leading commodities and shipping data analytics companies. That latest figure is down from about 823k in July as the war and blockade has squeezed the flow.

The mechanism: Iranian crude gets relabeled at sea. Ship-to-ship transfers off Johor, Malaysia outside anyone's jurisdiction turn Iranian cargo into "Malaysian" cargo on paper. The volume gap shows up in the numbers: Chinese customs report zero from Iran while "Malaysian" imports run well above what Malaysia produces.

The buyers left holding this trade are many independent so-called "teapot" refiners in the eastern coastal province of Shandong. Those refiners have no dollar exposure, no Western insurers, nothing for Treasury to leverage the way it can pressure Sinopec and CNPC. Payments for the teapot refiners move in yuan through China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System essentially China's alternative to SWIFT for clearing yuan-denominated payments internationally. Small regional banks, like the Bank of Kunlun, was sanctioned since 2012, are still in the plumbing. None of it touches the U.S. financial system.

---

The squeeze is real, which is why the CCP has been buying more Russian oil.

How can china be getting Iranian oil by any method if Iranian ports are blockaded?

Rail and pipeline

MagnumLoad said:

---

How can china be getting Iranian oil by any method if Iranian ports are blockaded?

---

Again one can find various sources to give a vast array of figures but they have oil 'at sea' from before the blockade, functionally, which is then 'trans-shipped' off Malaysia etc. to China. China has been their primary customer for years but showed no official Iranian imports due to the subterfuge/dishonesty.

Oil isn't paid for when it leaves Kharg island, it is paid for when it shows up in the destination port. The process intentionally is neither instantaneous, nor transparent. China isn't getting any oil via rail from Iran. That would require painstaking gage-changing of the rail cars, and a lengthy route that just isn't real practical for this purpose to Chicom refineries. They also don't have any pipelines connecting them to IRGC fields.

MagnumLoad said:

---

How can china be getting Iranian oil by any method if Iranian ports are blockaded?

---

They have a bunch of oil laden ships that are anchored off the coast of China that they got out of the strait during the June MOU.

Once these get emptied out into Chinese refineries, there is no replenishing them so long as the blockade stands

They got like 60MM barrels out of the Strait when Trump lifted the blockade. It's been sitting on water, slowly getting sold to China.

Good info

According to senior Iranian officials who spoke to Reuters, Iran only has about 2 months of gasoline supply left. Their refinery capacity has been diminished and they have been importing gasoline.

ErnestEndeavor said:

---

According to senior Iranian officials who spoke to Reuters, Iran only has about 2 months of gasoline supply left. Their refinery capacity has been diminished and they have been importing gasoline.

---

What they have will last longer than that since they'll just keep raising the price until nobody can afford it in order to stretch out what they have.

ErnestEndeavor said:

---

Using ballistic missiles to successfully target naval ships at range is a very difficult thing to do even for a highly advanced military. Iran attempting this is lunacy on their part. Practically zero chance of a hit or even accurate targeting.

Requires not only up to the second intelligence on target location but also trajectory changes and guidance mid-flight as the target is moving. Even a large ship moving at relatively slow speed would be many kilometers away from the target area by the time a missile is launched and arrives.

---

That's exactly what I was thinking. Ballistic missiles are for static targets, not dynamic ones.

There's no way they have mastered the mid-course correction (directed by radar data) and end-course maneuvering that would be needed for that type of attack.

That is great to hear.

Houthi IRGC proxies continue to lose significant ground in their corner of the sand patch.

🚨 Iran’s proxies in Yemen are taking major losses as the Houthis lose ground across multiple fronts.

The Houthis launched their largest coordinated ground offensive on these fronts since the 2022 truce, attempting to expand around western Taiz and southern Hodeidah and increase… https://t.co/UiFiuwjBJo pic.twitter.com/5nVKGrM8q5

— The Iran Watcher (@TheIranWatcher) September 5, 2026

Great line from @Norman_Roule "Those who believe the regime is too strong, too deeply embedded in Iranian society, or too well protected by pervasive domestic security institutions to fail, should recall how similar judgments were once made about Mubarak, Ben Ali, Ceaușescu, and…

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) September 5, 2026

ErnestEndeavor said:

---

Using ballistic missiles to successfully target naval ships at range is a very difficult thing to do even for a highly advanced military. Iran attempting this is lunacy on their part. Practically zero chance of a hit or even accurate targeting.

---

Iran is rumored to have used their recently developed 'Qasem Basir' anti-ship ballistic missile ... said to use midcourse inertial nav and electro-optical infrared seeker for terminal image match maneuvering.

Our side isn't talking. We don't know if our ships used evasive maneuvers, decoys, interceptors, etc. In short, we (the public) don't have a clue if this was a legit threat or a hail-Mary. That said, we did respond by taking out 3 of their tankers and amping up our rhetoric - so there's that.

Good to see. I wasn't aware the Yemeni government had any capability left to even fight back against the Houthis. Wonder if we've been supplying them on the side.

And that didn't work as we intercepted….

Good news all around

I'd say most likely some derivative of the chicoms ASBMs they've developed for their A2AD

[Do not drive by this military action update thread and dump political commentary on it when it's been clear that belongs on a different thread -- Staff]

Any thoughts on military actions being considered on 9/11?

Does not look like a stealth configuration with the external weapons.

A U.S. Air Force F-35A stealth fighter jet patrols over regional waters as CENTCOM forces continue to enforce the maritime blockade against Iran. As of Sept. 6, U.S. forces have redirected 92 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to ensure strict compliance. pic.twitter.com/oXNN5zKx1t

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) September 6, 2026

Didn't see this posted here - update to the tanker strikes with confirmation that one sunk.

Thanks to the precision and professionalism of American service members, the M/T Kylo sank in the Gulf of Oman today and joined Iran’s navy at the bottom of the sea. pic.twitter.com/OwSDMl8SSQ

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) September 6, 2026

richardag said:

---

Any thoughts on military actions being considered on 9/11?

---

Would not shock me if Iran tries something.

ErnestEndeavor said:

---

richardag said:

---

Any thoughts on military actions being considered on 9/11?

---

Would not shock me if Iran tries something.

---

I posted earlier but Rosh Hashana starts Friday evening.

If they really want to go bold, they attack on foreign soil. I pray that they are unable to go that route.

Israel issued another warning today not to try anything.

And it looks like Netanyahu is going to the UN soon. Hopefully they don't try anything in New York.

flown-the-coop said:

---

ErnestEndeavor said:

---

richardag said:

---

Any thoughts on military actions being considered on 9/11?

---

Would not shock me if Iran tries something.

---

I posted earlier but Rosh Hashana starts Friday evening.

If they really want to go bold, they attack on foreign soil. I pray that they are unable to go that route.

---

NSFW