MT Anderson

🇺🇸 husband, girl dad, son, brother 🇺🇸 | ⚽️ 🚵 ⛷ 🏔 | Opinions are my own

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

🇷🇺ENGELS AIR FORCE BASE
0.5M📸 Dec 12. Saw a message on the tarmac where the Tu-95s usually are. I'm not a russian speaker but will let someone else translate СМЕРТЬ НАЦИСТАМ but google says 'death to the nazis'.
@FouthTimeLucky @vcdgf555 @IntercityFC @SMACT72 @LanguageIearner

[Mark Krutov @kromark]

1/ EXCLUSIVE: at @RFERL we obtained photos of a Russian flotilla in Tartus port, taken early September. This is the 1st instance in months of a Russian military ship being docked there, month after the announcement that Russia’s bases in Syria would be 'transferred' to Damascus.

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

@benreuter_IMINT @rockfish31 skywatch

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

Strait of Hormuz Traffic Flow (10 Sep 2026)
SAR pass (02:06 UTC/06:06 Local) shows vessel flow via the Omani channel:

Caveats apply but based on length (which is hard to be certain with SAR imagery), we could have the following:
2x VLCC (~350m & ~330m) transiting south
Aframax (~245m) & previously disabled hull to the north

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

@OKB1917 Its Airbus Pleiades (30cm resolution).... You could get this on Skywatch (but they won't let you post it, or at least they wouldn't let me post Novo images from Airbus)...

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

@MizarVision the "top" vessel is a Pr. 11356R Grigorovich Class Frigate. The "bottom" vessel is a Krivak Class (Pr. 1135). The other Grigorovich Class was alongside the sub pen on the harbor facing side.

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

🇺🇸USN Force Posture Update: NSF Diego Garcia
Sentinel 2 pass (4 Sep 2026) shows naval activity at NSF Diego Garcia.

Wharf berthing has Whidbey Island Class USS Comstock (LSD-45) alongside, while an Arleigh Burke DDG and an unidentified 202m commercial cargo vessel sit anchored in the lagoon.

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

🇺🇸USN Dual Carrier Footprint - SOCAL
Sentinel 2 (30 Aug 2026) shows 2x Nimitz-class CVNs across SOCAL (NASNI & OpArea)

⚓ NAS North Island: USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) alongside
🌊 SOCAL OpArea: USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) underway for workups

[Dan Lamothe @DanLamothe]

A community note for the Pentagon spokesman:

[OSINTdefender @sentdefender]

The Pentagon has placed several conservative military veterans with large social media followings in civilian roles within the department, according to The Washington Post, which reviewed Pentagon records and spoke with people familiar with the assignments.

Among those identified are retired Air Force Col. Rob Maness (@RobManess) and retired Army Col. Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) , both of whom have active government email accounts and are assigned to the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. Retired Army Col. Thomas Anderson, who writes online as @CynicalPublius, was also previously listed in the office.

The Post reports that the individuals have been serving as either special government employees or highly qualified experts. The precise duties, compensation and start dates for the assignments have not been disclosed.

The assignments appear to intersect with several Pentagon initiatives focused on military education and personnel policy. Maness, Schlichter and Anderson participated in a Senior Service College Task Force review at the Army War College in May. The task force was established to examine what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as “toxic” or “woke” ideology at senior service colleges.

The disclosure is notable because the three have maintained significant public profiles as commentators and, in several cases, have publicly supported Hegseth's policies. The Post also reports that some of their government affiliations were not disclosed in their recent public commentary.

Separately, conservative influencer Jennica Pounds, who writes as DataRepublican (@DataRepublican), disclosed that she became a Defense Department special government employee in July after previously holding a journalist credential in Hegseth's Pentagon press corps.

The Pentagon has declined to publicly identify the roles or confirm whether the individuals are receiving taxpayer-funded compensation. Thus far, the available reporting establishes their government affiliations but does not establish that they were hired specifically to promote partisan messaging or that their social-media activity is being directed by the Pentagon.

Source: https://t.co/Z0hnEfiLsm

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

High-Speed 🇨🇳PLAN Sortie Off Qingdao
Sentinel 2 (25 Aug 2026) captures heavy North Sea Fleet activity off Qingdao:

🌊 Underway: 2x Type 052 DDGs & 3x Type 054A Frigates
⚓ Anchorage: Suspected Type 076 LHD (~252m)
📍 Pierside Qingdao: Liaoning remains alongside.

Surface action group deployment or Type 076 trials? WDYT?

Caveats apply on vessel IDs given low resolution

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

GEOINT: 🇺🇸Diego Garcia Sustained Air & Naval Footprint
Satellite passes (25 Aug 2026) show continued assets across NSF Diego Garcia:

✈️ 4x Tankers, 1x P-8A, 2-3x Transports, 3–6x Fighters on the ramp
⚓ Arleigh Burke DDG, Kaiser-class Oiler & 183m TSP Tanker in port/lagoon

Caveats apply given resolution

[Charlie B @supbrow]

26 AUG 2026
@CopernicusCMS #Sentinel2 🛰️📷
~36km offshore of Shinas, Oman

Vessel, likely a tanker, seems to have a serious oil slick. Possible attack by Iran?

Awaiting info from @UK_MTO and JMIC
--
See @UANI Iran Shipping Update for more details:
https://t.co/xQrujS1hV4
--
H/t: @TankerTrackers
@JemimaShelley @mercoglianos @MikeSchuler @malte_humpert @MarcusHand1 @tom_bike @MT_Anderson @soonweilun @tldraanan

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

@ianellisjones @mercoglianos typo, clouds to the east, not west

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

Lone 🇺🇸USN Destroyer Operating Off 🇴🇲Oman
Sentinel 2 (24 Aug 2026) captures an Arleigh Burke DDG at 22.819, 60.300 off Ras al Hadd.

No CVN visible on this pass, but heavy cloud cover to the west could obscure CSG assets.

Blockade enforcement, picket, or CSG screen? WDYT?

[Charlie B @supbrow]

@d_viekass @Moochikal @MT_Anderson @GordianKnotRay @AndrewSErickson @anshu217 @Ghongha007 @NavyNews1109 @CeciliaSykala @AllSourceA @MoloWarMonitor @tom_bike @type36512 21 AUG 2026
17.3699, 109.6957
~90km south of Sanya, Hainan
🇨🇳PLAN Aircraft Carrier
--
@PLATracker @OfficialBen_L @detresfa_

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

🇺🇸US Navy CSG Spotted Off Oman
Sentinel 2 (19 Aug 2026) captures a Nimitz Class CVN + 2x Arleigh Burke DDGs ~74km off Ras al Hadd.

No Ticonderoga CG in screen—likely points to CVN-77 (Bush) or CVN-72 (Lincoln) rather than CVN-73 (GW).

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

🇺🇸USN: Diego Garcia tracking (16–18 Aug 2026)
Airfield south ramp hosts 5x tankers, 6x fighters, and 2x P-8As. Concurrently, lagoon activity confirms 2x Arleigh Burke DDGs, a Kaiser-class replenishment oiler, and an TSP commercial tanker.

[MT Anderson @MT_Anderson]

He’s an expert at filtering out visual noise, dialing in sensors, and making sense of huge piles of imaging data - which I would imagine would be pretty valuable to the Navy (e.g. fine tuning cameras and heat sensors, training systems to automatically flag targets in messy data, and cleaning up satellite feeds to track what's happening)

[Sino Talk (Joaquin Camarena) @SinoTalk]

On August 10th, the Shuiqiao-class Landing Platform Utility (LPU) barges continued to conduct an exercise at Wojiaowan, Fujian. The barges departed Yuhuan Naval Pier on August 2nd to avoid Typhoon Dolphin and arrived at Wojiaowan by August 5th.