Ankit Panda

"According to a government source on Saturday, a large number of U.S. military heavy transport aircraft, including C-17s that had been stationed at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, on March 5 and 6, have already departed the base" www.donga.com/en/article/a...

North Korea Is Getting Serious About Space Weapons The new chapter in defense planning seems like a direct response to Trump’s Golden Dome.

My latest in @foreignpolicy.com: with a war in the Middle East, the world appears to have missed that North Korea is now officially getting into the space weapons game (with strong incentives to put nukes in space). My analysis: foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/09/n...

Regarding Iran's threats to the Strait, Trump claims, "We have the greatest mine sweeping ability." Um, no. 1/4

The US Navy faces a very plausible risk of significant surface combatant losses in a future great power conflict. Not the precedent you want to be setting here.

If Putin facilitates the US-Iran ceasefire, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will have the opportunity to do the funniest thing imaginable.

Don't make me tap the sign.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but Tomahawk Block IV can dive vertically.

From my NKPro commentary written last June. Unfortunate to be right in this case.

Rubio’s Promise to “Unleash Chiang” Won’t Land Well in China The secretary of state's odd reference to regime change in China likely damaged prospects for nuclear arms talks.

'It’s not difficult to imagine that Xi and other Chinese leaders could interpret Rubio’s public call to “unleash Chiang” as a warning of what is waiting for them if they don’t play ball with the Trump administration' blog.ucs.org/gregory-kula...

Why Trump’s Golden Dome could upset the ‘nuclear balance’ with North Korea | NK PRO U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to build a “Golden Dome” comprising space-based interceptors, among other capabilities, to take out missile threats represents a dramatic departure from Washington’...

I wrote last June about the possibility we were heading in this direction when North Korean state media took aim at the space-based components of Golden Dome (paywalled, for NKPro). www.nknews.org/pro/why-trum...

North Korea Is Getting Serious About Space Weapons The new chapter in defense planning seems like a direct response to Trump’s Golden Dome.

My latest in @foreignpolicy.com: with a war in the Middle East, the world appears to have missed that North Korea is now officially getting into the space weapons game (with strong incentives to put nukes in space). My analysis: foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/09/n...

The dangerous lesson countries may take from the Iran war Having a nuclear weapon has never looked more appealing.

Having nukes has never looked more appealing.

My latest for
@vox.com on the dangerous lesson countries are likely to take from this moment, with insights from @nktpnd.bsky.social

www.vox.com/politics/481...

Can't see any sunsets when you're deep in a tunnel in Isfahan, at least.

'TACO' and 'the adversary gets a vote' are concepts in conflict, by the way.

And viciously hard to end them

Nikkei opens down 3000

New Nukesletter: on recent revelations from ONI on the JL-4 (China's next-gen, longer-range SLBM) and on China's all-nuclear-propulsion future submarine force. panda.substack.com/p/a-glimpse-...

The Long-Feared Persian Gulf Oil Squeeze Is Upon Us Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has ground to a virtual halt, unleashing the most severe energy crisis since the 1970s.

"One week into President Trump’s war on Iran, the most severe shock to energy markets since the 1970s is cascading through the world economy." www.wsj.com/world/middle...

The Sinking of Iris Dena: It’s time to Revisit The Law of Armed Conflict Claims that the sinking of the Iranian ship by the US Navy represents a ‘strategic embarrassment’ for India are matters of opinion rather than conclusions grounded in international law.

LOAC and the sinking of IRIS Dena sundayguardianlive.com/editors-choi...

Orphaned Tactics Oops we did it again

“The war with Iran is little more than the joint targeting process unleashed. The Frankenstein’s monster that is the operational level of war, unsatiated after eating strategy, is now feasting on policy”. @bafriedman.bsky.social

Dozens killed as Israeli special forces raid Lebanese village in search of 40-year-old remains Overnight, one Israeli operation saw at least 41 people killed and 40 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Pretty serious allegation here. "Witnesses told the BBC that the Israeli soldiers had arrived disguised in Lebanese military fatigues and used ambulances with signs of Hezbollah's Islamic Health Organization."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

That looks like a TLAM and that is almost certainly the IRGC compound in Minab, looking north-ish across Imam Khomeini Blvd./Route 91.

Boffin is such a delightful word.

Had to look what a "boffin" is. "France’s unfolding nuclear umbrella" www.ft.com/content/e9c2...

By @cherylrofer.bsky.social.

Woops should have tagged you!

Good post on the practical SOF challenges of securing Iran's HEU stocks. Doesn't mean Israel and the US won't try it.

Again, only one Arrow-3 launch over the night of March 5, this time from Tel Aviv.

Brings the total Arrow-3s recorded since the war started to 16. That is still below the number used during the first night of the 12-Day War alone

“We are trapped between the regime that is killing us with machine guns, and a foreign power has likely decided that we are collateral damage.”