Earlier today, the Houthis announced a large-scale wave of strikes against King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait, Saudi Arabia. A commensurate release from Saudi Arabia’s Directorate of Civil Defense announced an alert for the same area during the strikes.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Adm. Brad Cooper departed Saudi Arabia earlier this morning after arriving in Riyadh on September 11 amid a rapidly escalating Houthi offensive in Yemen.

The Houthi campaign has expanded to attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and advances toward the Bab al Mandeb Strait, including the reported seizure of Perim Island and positions along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

Adm. Cooper’s visit follows reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman twice contacted President Donald J. Trump on Thursday seeking urgent U.S. military assistance against the Houthis. The Trump administration has so far declined to authorize direct U.S. strikes, but has agreed to provide Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting support.

The future USS Ted Stevens (DDG-128), a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, transited the Panama Canal westbound last week en route to Whittier, Alaska, where it is scheduled to be commissioned into the U.S. Navy on October 3.

The destroyer departed HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding facility in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in May and first sailed to its future homeport at Naval Station Norfolk. The ship has since continued its testing and preparation for commissioning.

Following its commissioning in Alaska, Ted Stevens will return to Norfolk, where the crew will continue training, testing and certification ahead of the ship’s eventual entry into the operational fleet.

The Ted Stevens is the second Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built by Ingalls and is equipped with the AN/SPY-6(V)1 air and missile defense radar and upgraded Aegis combat systems.

Photo: https://x.com/WarshipCam/status/2097909108330389929

U.S. President Donald J. Trump has said that Iran is currently willing to make some sort of a deal, amidst ongoing hostilities between them and the U.S., that have carried on now for over 6 months. Per the president, he will determine, in a yet unspecified timeframe if the U.S. will engage in a resumed negotiations process.

Former Air Forces Central (AFCENT) commander Lt. Gen. Derek France says Operation Epic Fury exposed several gaps in U.S. preparation for major combat against a capable state adversary.

Air & Space Forces Magazine reports France identified munitions logistics, long range air domain awareness and base survivability as key areas for improvement. U.S. bases continued generating sorties despite repeated Iranian missile and drone attacks, but France said critical command and control facilities and aircrew areas need greater protection.

The scale was fundamentally different from decades of counterterrorism operations: more than 13,000 targets were struck while Iran launched more than 1,500 ballistic missiles and 6,000 drones.

France's assessment offers a rare look at what the U.S. Air Force learned from conducting sustained, high intensity combat against an adversary capable of repeatedly attacking American forces.

Source: https://www.airandspaceforces.com/former-afcent-commander-reflects-on-lessons-of-epic-fury/

President Donald J. Trump has announced via Truth Social that the U.S. is producing more "Exquisite and Elite Weapons than at any time in our History." He goes on to say that deliveries to the Middle East, and beyond, are occurring daily.

In March, President Trump announced that several weapons manufacturers had agreed to increase production 400%. The administration has since taken steps to expand production of several critical munitions, including THAAD and PAC-3 interceptors. Congress has also provided additional funding for munitions procurement.

However, Congress has not specifically appropriated funding to support the blanket 400% production increase President Trump described in March. The Pentagon's subsequent multiyear production agreements are also subject to annual congressional appropriations.

In a first, according to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauséda, alerts in Lithuania recently were the result of a drone, likely Russian. Per President Nauséda, NATO fighter jets, deployed as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, were scrambled and subsequently shot down the drone.

U.S. Central Command has refuted the nature of recent IRGC claims that the Panama-flagged El Gaia struck a naval mine today, saying that the vessel was struck last month already by an Iranian missile and was “rendered inoperable.” Per the release, the Iranians struck the vessel again while it sat off the coast of Oman. However, tracking from the days leading up to the reported strike does not necessarily line up with CENTCOM’s characterization of the two incidents.