Chris Biggers

The Milky Way in the night sky.

The night will be shining through a million eyes.
Ad Astra ✨

The Western Veil Nebula NGC 6960 ✨

Capturing ancient stellar violence in the constellation Cygnus! This shows the aftermath of a massive star that exploded over 20,000 years ago.

Part of a larger mosaic project to capture the entire Cygnus Loop! 🌌

#Astrophotography #veilnebula

Crew abandons Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned ship attacked in the Red Sea, UK military says Crew members aboard a Liberian-flagged ship set ablaze by a series of attacks in the Red Sea have abandoned the vessel as it took on water.

Crew abandons Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned ship attacked in the Red Sea, UK military says

apnews.com/article/yeme...

A nice 1 look collect from @capellaspace.bsky.social showed the total destroyed structures at the Ahvez UAV airstrip which included UAV hangars, weapons storage areas, the control building, and various support structures.

The latest roundup at Janes looking at Operation Rising Lion and Midnight Hammer is now live for subscribers. I sincerely appreciate the contributions from our friends over at @planet.com and Umbra. There's likely another update to come, so stay tuned.

For context, they did the same thing last year after their April strikes on Israel. At the time, we tasked some very high resolution Umbra SAR showing that event in detail. The above Planet imagery showed nothing that we didn't expect to see.

Looking at imagery, we often focus on what's not present as much as we do with what's present. This recent conflict between Israel and Iran was no different. It provided us with another opportunity to look at what Iran has been testing out at Kashan airport after they dispersed their UAVs.

As a child of the 1980s, I pause every time I come to this slide. Farewell old friends, gone but never forgotten. (Imagery courtesy of @planet.com)

While things have slowed down between Iran and Israel, there's still plenty of accounting to be done to fully understand the damage to the air defense network. Plant imagery acquired 1128Z 24JUN2025 showed a destroyed Matla-al-fajr VHF radar and two probable containerized missiles.

Russian soldiers in heat-insulating anti-drone ponchos tried to approach and attack frontline positions.

A Ukrainian ground drone equipped with a UB-16 rocket launcher, typically mounted on aircraft such as the Mi-24. It fires S-5 unguided rockets.

Imagery analysis suggests a possible ELINT system could have replaced one of the TELs—a previously identified configuration with air defense protecting the refinery.

Planet imagery acquired 1036Z 18JUN2025 showed that the Bavar system IVO the refinery has likely redeployed approximately 650 m west to a legacy air defense position.

I can't believe we're in a timeline where Tucker Freaking Carlson is a voice of reason in a conversation.

Iran's air defense continues to be degraded. Planet imagery acquired 0744Z 18JUN2025 highly suggests Israeli airstrikes have destroyed S-200 components to include the two 5N62 SQUARE PAIR and the 5N84 TALL KING radars. These were deployed around the Eight Shekari Airbase in Isfahan.

Guardian headline saying, "‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number Chatbot tries to change subject after serving up unrelated user’s mobile to man asking for rail firm helpline"

'Meredith,' some guys ask, 'why won't you shove AI into Signal?'

Because we love privacy, and we love you, and this shit is predictable and unacceptable. Use Signal ❤️

Planet imagery acquired 0433Z 17JUN2025 confirmed that Israel destroyed the Alam al-Huda VHF radar that was deployed to Fath Airport in western Tehran. The radar arrived in April 2025 replacing the Kavosh UHF (Kasta-2E2) system. SEI is believed to have only manufactured one Alam al-Huda.

"Good night sweet prince"
I've been tracking Iranian frankenradars for years, and today Tehran lost one I believe to be the basis for several others that have popped up recently.

Wild stuff: Mohsen Rezaei in Iran says that Iran has a secret commitment from Pakistan to use nuclear weapons against Israel, leading Pakistan's defense minister to publicly clarify that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are "solely" for its defense www.livemint.com/news/world/p...

Hit Iranian missile base near Kermanshah, Iran, spotted TODAY at

34.3589, 47.2354 <larger white roof building>

Destroyed buildings are surrounded by gray debris and disappearing white roofing. Most mountain scorch marks are burned vegetation.

ISRAEL BOMBS IRANIAN STATE TV Israel launches new attacks on Tehran as confrontation escalates and death toll rises.

‘Israeli military says… it has bombed the building of Iran’s state broadcaster in Tehran. centre was used by the armed forces to promote military operations under civilian cover, while using its own means and assets,” it said, without giving any evidence’ www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

IRAF F-14s are no more.

William Langewiesche, the ‘Steve McQueen of Journalism,’ Dies at 70 He was a master of long form narratives, often involving high-stakes topics. He reported for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine.

“Writing is thinking; writing is a form of thought,” he said. “It’s difficult for me to believe that real thought is possible without writing.” www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/b...

Up to 60 targets can be detected and processed by the system at any one time. Target detection is done using a rotating antenna making either six or twelve revolutions-per-minute with targets identified out at ranges of 81 nautical miles/nm (150 kilometres/km) to 108nm (200km).

The Avtobaza-M is a Russian SIGINT system designed to detect signal emissions between 200 MHz and 18 GHz to support air defense. The system shares data on target azimuth and elevation angle, radar type (pulse-Doppler and/or continuous wave) and emission waveform.

In the recent strikes around the Tehran refinery, we note that Iran still had an Avtobaza-M system deployed and at other places around Tehran. While we don't know whether it was operating or if Iran is having C3 issues, seeing a successful strike so close is notable.

Iran has claimed for years that it had made great strides in electronic warfare (EW) with systems capable of detecting advanced threats through a web of mobile, ground-based and airborne systems. In the country's last five year plan, however EW modernization remained an important goal.

no, but it is great motivation.

I’m sure it’s likely damaged a lot more than they’ve let on.

There must be trouble in The People's Paradise as the Choi Hyon-class destroyer remains at the shipyard despite the relaunch ceremony on 12JUN2025. It'll be amusing to see how long the boat stays in the dock given estimates provided by KNCA. Will shipyard workers escape execution? Stay tuned.