Transcription
Welcome to the video, everybody. It's Friday, June 26, 2026.
A Singapore flag cargo ship called the Ever Lovely was trying to exit the Strait of Hormuz last night. It was taking the southern route, the one that hugs the Omani coast, the one that the United States military is actively defending. And this is a representation of that ship right here. We don't have exact confirmed footage. Again, that southern highway, that's the area that the peace deal was supposed to open up, but an IRGC drone found it anyway.
Enter CentCom. Just a few moments later, CentCom's going to post this image right here of an F-16 carrying the mighty APKWS rockets. These rockets mean business. These are $20,000 laser-guided rockets that can home in right to a Shahed drone and then obviously take down drones. However, it's got a little something else. It's got a little something that she told you not to worry about. Basically, the bomb on the left wing of this thing is the guy that she told you not to worry about. It's the GBU-54. So, not only targeting the drones, those laser-guided rockets, but actually targeting the C2 command and control nodes, the places where the drone operators in the IRGC Navy could actually be operating.
And then later this afternoon, President Trump has said he'll make a big announcement. So, will this be renewed strikes in Iran? Will it be something completely different? We don't exactly know. But right now, as we speak, the IRGC is broadcasting that they're going to continue to collect tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. They're trying to push all the ships up north. If you look at this target imagery right here, you can see Lavan Oil Island, all the little choke points up near the coast of Iran. That's exactly where they want to get these ships to go. And now Iran's ships aren't being pushed back into their ports, but they're still being a little bit nefarious in what they do to other commercial ships that aren't paying their toll. It looks like the Shahed drone actually hit the bridge of the ship. And the IRGC said the consequences of traveling on unauthorized routes will be the responsibility of the owner, operator, and commander of the vessel. So, as you can see, General Tuna from the IRGC, who's ever in charge of the IRGC at this point, has gotten a little feisty and needs a little bit of cocktail sauce.
Hey everybody, quick update to that video. So, President Trump just posted this on Truth Social showing that we did shoot down three of their drones. Here's what he said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran shot at least four one-way attack drones at ships traversing the Strait of Hormuz. One of those drones solidly hit the upper deck of a large and very expensive cargo-carrying ship. Damage was done, but the ship was able to proceed on its way. We knocked down three other drones. Obviously, this is a foolish violation of our ceasefire agreement." President Donald J. Trump.
So, in no uncertain terms, showing that Iran is now put on notice. What will be the next strikes? Will there be more strikes? But again, the F-16 is perfectly suited to shoot these down along with the AH-64 Apache. And we're going to get into all of that throughout this video. Latest breaking updates coming right at you. But here's the part that diplomatically should make your jaw drop. At the end of the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, VP JD Vance, they've been doing everything they can to give Iran a chance to open up the Strait of Hormuz and actually hold to their deal. So it looks like Iran, while they're negotiating, they're having their IRGC actually do some nefarious things in the Strait of Hormuz to either help their negotiation position or it's rogue factions of the IRGC that will likely be dealt with by the US military very, very soon.
Within minutes, though, CentCom releasing that jaw-dropping F-16 screaming over the Middle East. No press conference, no warning, just iron up at altitude. The message is basically in the exhaust trail at this point. Also, the US military has AH-64 Apaches armed with APKWS laser-guided rockets as well that are hunting those drones over the open water. So, F-16 Block 50s on patrol, multiple of those, multiple of those still in the region, probably dozens or more teamed up with the AH-64. Reports that I'm seeing are saying that the A-10 Warthog has actually gone home for now. There might be a few left in the region, but the big workhorse now is the F-16, Block 50, and Block 52. These are a fleet of fighter jets that really take it to the enemy in a way that they don't want to mess with, and they've been holding back. They've been showing that tactical restraint. And now with Iran doing what they do, sounds like these F-16s might be dropping from the top rope at any second.
Because we know there's so many different factions at play and so many different things that happen in warfare. And that's exactly what I put in my new book, The Art of Modern War. I wanted to give everybody a little bit of an insight into what happens in the gray areas of warfare and how the deals behind the scenes, the political maneuvering, the aircraft maneuvering, all the different things that come into play when it comes to modern war. It's a lot more than meets the eye. And these exact principles, these are things we can actually apply and use in our own professional and personal life to help us win at whatever we're doing. So I intertwined my different experiences from studying Iran, Russia, China in back vaults of the US military for over a decade and all the unclassified things that I can actually talk about the strategies and techniques of how the best military on earth actually executes warfare. I did everything I could to put those in here with some fun stories throughout my career and throughout my personal life. I tried to not hold anything back to give you guys the absolute best value possible. There's a link in the description right now. You can grab a signed or an unsigned copy. Thanks so much for supporting me with the book.
And remember, the US military has a fleet of guided missile destroyers that are locking the southern corridor right now. However, Iran's got a lot of these drones. But the US military has something that Iran is not counting on, and that is the Eagle's counter-drone system, EALS. The Eagle's counter-drone system works off of the deck of one of these ships. It's a one-way attack weapon for a fraction of the cost of what these Shahed drones cost. This is what Project Freedom looks like when someone tests it. So, will the blockade go back into effect? And then we're watching a breaking story out of Ukraine right now. So, stay for the global roundup. That's about 3/4 of the way through the video and we're out traveling right now. We're actually in Boulder City, Nevada. The Hoover Dam is just over there, just through those mountains. So, I hope you guys enjoy this backdrop. It's incredibly patriotic here. America 250 banners everywhere, American flags everywhere. Boulder City is just awesome, and Nevada is awesome in general.
But first, let's get to the Strait of Hormuz and the peace deal and what is happening right now with the US military's targeting list. So, we know that just 18 hours ago on June 25th, the IRGC issued a blunt warning to all shipping vessels, saying they must coordinate with Iranian naval authorities and only use the northern route. So, why are they doing that? Why is General Tuna and General Salami only using the northern route? Well, it's because they're competing for the best cocktail party, obviously, but at the end of the day, they're trying to get all those ships to go up there right next to all the different places where they have their small attack craft. Cuz remember, their main navy, their blue water navy has been decimated. So, them even making that trek 20 miles or so toward the coast of Oman is unfeasible in certain ways with their small fast attack craft, or they just don't have the same capability. So for those small fast attack craft, they need to move all the ships up near their shores so they have the ability to harass them up near a place where they can actually logistically reach them.
The US approved corridor has been moving, though. It looks like from reports I'm seeing, over a hundred ships plus have gone through that corridor in a week, but the IRGC drone found one of them several miles off the Omani coast. The ship's bridge took the hit. The UK Maritime Trade Operations Center confirmed the strike. The International Maritime Organization, which had been running a rescue evacuation for stranded vessels, they immediately said that they halted all operations. So, it sounds like 11,000 seafarers could still be trapped in the Gulf going nowhere right now. And Iran's foreign minister, Zarif, was on a call with Oman's foreign minister at almost the exact same moment, discussing the future administration of the strait. CentCom responded by releasing those F-16 patrol imageries to the public within minutes. Not an air strike yet, at least from what we've heard so far, and that Iran knows can not only strike their drones, but can also strike the operators themselves. So, the F-16's already watching, and the next call belongs to the Viper. Iran fired during the peace deal. CentCom is answering with hard metal in the sky.
And that brings us to the platforms that could go up against Iran again at any second. So, the southern Omani corridor, the route that Iran called illegal, and then proved it essentially by hitting it. They're trying to intimidate all the different shipping insurance companies, all the different shipping operators. Think about the pilots of these ships, the ones driving them. I think they call them pilots, right? They're mariners, and they're out there getting these ships through contested waters. But the F-16, Block 50, and Block 52 is specifically built for this, but they can also carry HARMs. And this is the one thing I wanted to hit on again is the HARMs are for radar suppression, but the HARM is really built to hone in on different radar systems. And then carrying that GBU-54, that means that it can target IRGC Navy special operations headquarters that are peppered throughout all the different islands along the Strait of Hormuz. I flew the F-16, and to me, it's the most maneuverable. It's one of the best packages right now, especially when it's loaded out with those APKWS rockets. And then the AH-64 Apache, the drone hunter. This is the platform doing the dirty work on the southern route right now. The AH-64 can be paired with an APG-78 Longbow radar. I mean, pretty amazing. It can detect, classify, and prioritize dozens of contacts simultaneously, including the category of small one-way attack drones. But we know that that helicopter has to be very careful because, especially at night, Iran can sneak these drones in and they can try to target and hit the helicopters with these drones themselves. And then the AGM-114 Hellfire variants are very capable at striking fast attack crafts. So these AH-64 Apaches could be up there and airborne, ready to crush these fast attack crafts. Let's say there's 6 to 12 of these Apaches, and they just light off five to 10 Hellfires that are targeted onto these fast attack crafts, and you basically get a fleet, a whole mosquito fleet that goes poof extremely quick. The AH-64 is basically the bug zapper of helicopters when it comes to Iran's mosquito fleet. So Iran's going to continue threatening commercial shipping, and this engagement that just happened wasn't theoretical. These boats could be gone essentially like that if the AH-64 unleashes.
And then here's the Eagles. This is the counter-drone system that nobody is talking about. CentCom has deployed the Eagles. That's the Electronic Advanced Ground Launcher System. I know you acronym junkies needed that. They've deployed that to the region. The Eagles is actually a remotely operated counter-drone platform that fires APKWS laser-guided rockets that are guided by an ASA radar and an electro-optical infrared sensor. So earlier I said it was directed energy. That's what the actual radar is. A radar directs its energy, and this thing actually fires with kinetic options. But there's directed energy options in the theater as well. But remember, the cost per engagement when it comes to that rocket is roughly $20,000 compared to a million-dollar AMRAAM. And that's just a massive economy of force win for the United States military. And the Longbow Apaches are in the air, the destroyers are on the water, the F-16s are overhead. So if this goes hot again, if President Trump pushes that big red button at this point, every system is right there to be like, "Iran, really?" Like all you guys had to do is just adhere to the deal, and the tolls would have become rich again. But that's not enough for the mafia, is it?
But remember, the naval backbone is still there as well. And that anchors the southern corridor. US Navy guided missile destroyers with ballistic missile defense capability. These aren't just floating gun platforms. They carry the Aegis combat system. That's the most integrated naval air defense suite in the world. And it goes up against these Iranian drones and cruise missiles. There's also Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, basically building a naval fortress. And they're showing restraint right now. They're giving diplomacy a chance, but they're sitting there just itching. They're like that pit bull in the corner that you've got on a chain, and you're like, "No, buddy." Even though someone's breaking into the house, just be calm, be cool. And the pit bull's like, "No, I can't. Just let me do what I do." That's basically the Aegis system. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyers teamed up with the F-16 and the Apache at this point.
But know your enemy and know yourself, right? Like Sun Tzu says. So, we know that the IRGC is not nothing, and the US military could have kept crushing them all the way to now. We could be doing videos basically every single day about how bombs are dropping on the heads of IRGC members. But why didn't that happen? Well, here's the strategic reason that I'm seeing play out. Basically, if that didn't happen, we'd be looking at a worldwide depression to keep the strait closed for a longer period of time. And at this point, with the administration knowing that the midterms are important, getting gas prices down, that's extremely important right now. But there could be something that we see with small little kinetic actions, basically a tit-for-tat to continue to show Iran that they can't mess around with the shipping corridor. So I wouldn't be surprised here in the next few hours if we actually see a US military response, but a proportional response. So a lot of you have said, "Why are we just turning the place into a parking lot?" Well, a proportional response would allow the strait to stay open while strategically targeting these IRGC Navy you-know-whats. And remember the IRGC naval commander who I'm calling General Tuna at this point. The guy who's probably going to be fired at a moment's notice should the US military go hot.
But they're creating a new belt of resistance that stretches from the Strait of Hormuz. And they're also talking about the Bab el-Mandeb, the southern entrance to the Red Sea. So it's not just a threat about one choke point. This is a doctrinal statement about controlling global maritime commerce from two ends of the Arabian Peninsula simultaneously. So, as you can see, this powder keg is getting a lot bigger than I think anybody thought it would.
You made it to the global roundup, my friends, and I want to talk to you about Ukraine. Ukraine is rewriting the map on global military warfare when it comes to drones. It's just insane. There's a video right here showing Ukrainian one-way attack drones just flying freely into Moscow, striking strategic targets. They struck the Orenburg gas processing plant. They went over 700 miles to get that done. And they also hit Russia's only production facility. Just last night, Russia said they shot down 600 plus Ukrainian drones. So, this is just wild. So Ukraine at this point is going into a massive offensive where they're trying to bring Russia to the table. But it looks like they're kind of doing the only thing that might work. It's either going to help get some strategic wins for Ukraine or it'll actually bring Putin to the table. But it looks like 40-plus days of increased strikes is what Ukraine is talking about right now.
And that brings us to the 4D chess strategic analysis section, my friends. So Iran didn't accidentally target the Ever Lovely. Obviously, they're trying to create this new strait authority for negotiations, not just with the United States, but with Oman. You guys see that playing out, right? Because they have this 60-day window to negotiate what actually happens in the Strait of Hormuz right now. So, they can basically show strength, show that they're the mafia bosses that they are, try to intimidate all their different Gulf partners and create the strait authority that falls under the protection of the IRGC. I mean, we're kidding ourselves if we think this new Gulf Strait Authority is anything but the IRGC with a clipboard. It's like the IRGC plus they're the M-cops of the Strait of Hormuz as well. They've teamed up with the M-cops at this point. And they've got that little sash that says, "We are the Persian Gulf Authority and we're not the mafia at all." Because Iran's position is that the Omani route was never authorized to begin with because their IRGC navy generals never saw that as a route that they could control. So for the last few decades, they always saw that as something that they needed to fight against. So now we're just seeing on a whole new level them trying to control the Strait of Hormuz by intimidating that southern Omani route. So the US military, in my opinion, is going to have to go in and actually open that up in a much more decisive way. Oh, and here, by the way, here's what Iran could make off of controlling the entire Strait of Hormuz. JP Morgan just said that Iran could make over $90 billion a year if they fully control the Strait of Hormuz. So, as you can see, there's a little bit of an incentive from these mafia bosses, and General Tuna probably isn't letting up at any point. So, General Tuna is going to probably try to delay the fish fry as long as possible, but to me, the F-16 and the US military are the ones that are dictating the terms of the fish and chips for the IRGC.
So there you go, guys. What do you think happens here in the next 48 hours? Do you think we see more kinetic strikes in Iran? Would love to hear what you have to say. Let me know your thoughts below. Go and follow me on X. Follow me on Instagram. Hope you enjoyed this new background. I'll be having this here for the next few days. Thanks so much for watching, guys. Really appreciate you. We'll see you in the next video. This is Ryan, also known as Max Afterburner, signing off.
I could see like, Iranian state TV movie pitch. So like, "Good evening and welcome to Iranian state broadcasting. Tonight, we're pleased to present our proposed summer blockbuster, The Strait of Hormuz. In this film, a heroic and extremely sovereign naval authority, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which is absolutely not the IRGC with a clipboard. They bravely charge modest administrative processing fees, and they intimidate unarmed cargo ships with drones and AK-47s. The hero of our film faces a great villain, a foreign navy with over a hundred aircraft, guided missile destroyers, Apache helicopters, and F-16s that we actually really enjoy seeing at air shows. I wish we could have bought some of those back in the day. Critics are calling this the most consequential maritime bureaucracy since the Suez Canal. Rated PG-13 for moderate geopolitical tension and gaslighting and very strongly worded exposts."