Iran's Air Defenses Just Picked a Fight With an F-35 And LOST INSTANTLY

Ajouté : 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Morning. It's May 27th, 2026.

[00:00:02]Technically day 88 of the Iran US standoff. Here's the situation. While Iran's top diplomats were wheels up to Doha for peace talks, Iran's generals were busy doing something else entirely.

[00:00:15]On May 25th, we know that SenCom confirmed US forces conducted those self-defense strikes in southern Iran.

[00:00:21]Two IRGC boats got caught red-handed laying those naval mines. We covered that in yesterday's video. But then surfaceto-air missile sites near Bondar Abbas were painting American aircraft and we're getting new details on what actually happened there. They were targeting with their radar. They were trying to be surgical calibrated and then the lights went off. But on May 26, there was a press release and the IRGC said they fired back with something even more dangerous than missiles at this point. A press release from the IRGC.

[00:00:52]That's basically their most dangerous weapon at this point. But Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that they shot down a US MQ9 Reaper. This is just coming in right now. They said that they fired on an RQ4 Global Hawk. And here's the one that you need to stay for. They said they fired a surfaceto-air missile at an F-35 Lightning 2, the most advanced combat aircraft on the planet. And they're claiming that they chased it off. So they're saying they shot the missile and the F-35 tucked its tail between its legs and ran away. So, we're going to get into that engagement, what the IRGC is likely talking about and the fact that they're not nothing, but we'll talk about whether or not this press release has any teeth and where the US goes from here and how that engagement actually ended up. Meanwhile, the new Supreme Leader Majabi went on X. Yes, could someone take this guy's phone away from him? I mean, seriously. But he told every Gulf nation hosting American troops that they will quote no longer serve as shields for US bases. So that's a direct threat to Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, and it came while the peace deal was supposedly one sentence away from being signed. And then President Trump released this on Truth Social. He said, "If Iran surrenders, admits their navy is gone, resting at the bottom of the sea, and their force is no longer with us. And if their entire military walks out of Tran, weapons dropped, hands held high, each shouting, "I surrender. I surrender while wildly waving the representative white flag. And if their entire remaining leadership signs all necessary documents of surrender and admit their defeat to the great power and force of the magnificent USA, the failing New York Times, the China Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, corrupt and now irrelevant CNN and all other members of the fake news media will headline that Iran had a masterful and brilliant victory over the United States of America. It wasn't even close. The Democrats and media have totally lost their way. They have gone absolutely crazy. President Donald J. Trump. The thing I'll add on there, you know, I offered to go on to CNN and talk and give them some of the military strategy, some of the military realities of what's going on. And let's just say they haven't returned my call yet. But at the end of the day, I wish a lot of these media outlets would understand there's military strategy and tactics here that we should give credit where credit is due. The masterful way that the Iranian military was completely decimated was incredible. Now we're in the proxy phase of the war. So now we can talk about that. So I will just say CNN, if you're watching my channel, please invite me on. I would love to have a conversation with you. And then stick around to the very end because today we've got some wild global roundup stories going on involving Russia and involving a Chinese bolab operating as an Airbnb in Las Vegas. That'll happen about 3/4 of the way through the video. So basically Iran went to Doha ready to negotiate and then the IRGC went to the Straits of Hormuz ready to go all night with their surfaceto-air missiles and then SinCom showed up with Jams and I'm pretty sure the IRGC is going to be fully satisfied now. So we know the IRGC is running a sustained provocation campaign in and around the Straight of Hormuz right now.

[00:03:56]That's what they're doing right now.

[00:03:58]Missile launches, drone sorties, small boat activity. This isn't a one-off.

[00:04:02]This is a 48 hour drip of escalation specifically designed to test American rules of engagement under the ceasefire.

[00:04:10]SinCom answered this with precision with those two IRGC naval vessels basically going bye-bye in a split second with likely an MQ9 Reaper or even an F-18 dropping JDAMs or strafing them. Iran's principal naval base on the straight is Bondar Abbas. That's where they're hiding most of these different mini subs, their boats, their potential hovercraft. But right next to that, if we look right next to it, there's surfaceto-air missile sites right in that area. And those were the ones that were said to be actively tracking the F-35, the RQ4. Also, them saying they chased away an F-35. That was from that exact location. That's where they're saying their powerhouse is. And again, I've talked about this before. To me, this is always where this conflict was going. A showdown with the southern portion of Iran and Sentcom right there.

[00:05:00]Controlling the straight of four moves is what Iran wants to do. That's their main focus. But they claimed three simultaneous air incidents yesterday.

[00:05:09]MQ9 Reaper, they said they shot it down.

[00:05:11]RQ4 Global Hawk, they claimed they fired upon it. And then the big claim was engaging. They basically claimed engaging the F-35 with a surfaceto-air missile and they drove it out of Iranian airspace. So their statement obviously doesn't include any radar tracking data, wreckage, or corroborating imagery. The US confirmed the IRGC did fire multiple SAMs while American aircraft were operating in the area. But to me, when the F-35 sees those missiles fire, it's basically like a big dinner belt. It's not going to tuck its tail between its legs and run away. It's going to be like, "Oh, okay. Cool. Noted. Put a little post-it note there that we've got a service to air missile right by Bondar Abos. Cool. We'll take care of that in a second. First, we're going to make an espresso and have a biscati." But IRGC aerospace commander General Sed Majid Musavi was also posting on X just after the incident, calling negotiations with the United States a pure loss. I think he might have been talking about his surfaceto-air missile sites being evaporated in a few minutes after they tried to engage those US aircraft. But Iran's chief negotiator, Foreign Minister Arachi, he was landing in Doha for peace talks. And the IRGC generals were running completely separate foreign relations. Basically in that scene in Top Gun, the middle finger for foreign relations. That's basically the IRGC at this point flipping that middle finger while there's supposed negotiations going on. So to me, what could this be?

[00:06:33]This could potentially be IRGC generals freelancing, doing what they think is best to preserve their own thief dum. So they own the most important part of Iran. Basically, there's not really a diplomat that can come in and tell them what to do at this point. So I think of it as freelancing. These generals are basically freelancing at this point. So Iran accused the US Navy of harassment and then sincom just called it foreplay with Jams. But now let's talk about who actually made this call because the man behind Iran's air defenses has a very specific reason for keeping this war going. So the art of war, one of my favorite books and coming soon, a book that I'm actually writing is called The Modern Art of War. That announcement will be happening here soon. This was kind of a little teaser announcement, but more on that a little bit later. But that general who went on X, Brigadier General Sed Majid Mosavi, the commander of the IRGC aerospace force, that's the job title for the man personally responsible for Iran's entire ballistic missile program, drone fleet, SAM batteries, specifically the SAM batteries in Bondar, Abbas. He took the job on June 14th, 2025 because his predecessor, General Amir Ali Hazadi, went uh bye-bye. He basically got a battlefield promotion and there's not a very long shelf life for a lot of these generals in the region. He's been running Iran's air defense networks for less than a year. And when he calls the diplomacy a pure loss, that's not propaganda. This is a man who spent 11 months watching the treaty process fail to protect his predecessors and concluded that SAMs are more reliable than signatures or negotiations. Again, a bit of a freelance going on at this point. And then what they actually have likely Russian S300's are a part of their arsenal at this point. Those are advanced surfaceto-air missiles. They're not the best that Russia has, but they're not nothing. Also, domestic BVAR 373s. That's Iran's homegrown S300 equivalent, and those feature phased array radars, SID series interceptors with an engagement envelope reportedly exceeding 100 miles supposedly. In February 2025, Iran unveiled the Bavar 3732. When the one's not good enough, just build the Bavar 3732. They say it has improved independent launchers, extended range detection. Below that sits the Cordod 15 for medium range intercepts, and shorter TORM M1 units for point defense. So on paper, they've actually got a decent layered threat.

[00:08:56]But in practice, there is a fatal flaw baked into the physics of all the surfaceto-air missiles in Iran. The moment any of those radar systems illuminate a target, especially an F-35, they broadcast their own position to every signals intelligence platform in the theater. And the US has a lot of those overhead. Aircraft that can basically sniff out those signals, sit around and wait for them to turn on, and then boom, those service to-air missiles get seen, and they stand out like a you know what in sweatpants. Everybody's like, "Whoa, dude. Yeah, you probably should have worn boxers today." But that aircraft includes the RC135V rivet joint aircraft. Basically a signals intelligence beast sniffing out any signals that could be used to target aircraft. And then remember all these different fighters have RWRs which are radar warning receivers, F-35s, F-15 up in the battle space, basically detecting any radars that turn on at any point.

[00:09:50]But we know that Iran also is trying to change the game. They're trying to use electronic optical sensors potentially coming in from China. China's not giving weapons. Nope. Here's some advanced electroloptical sensors. Basically, extremely advanced cameras that could also potentially be used to target aircraft. So, this is obviously something that's important right now to determine what system is Iran going to use. And these jets are specifically made to determine and target these radar sites once they turn on. So Iran's general turned on his BVAR 373 thinking that he was going to shoot down an F-35, but the F-35 was basically just like, "Hey, stop hitting on me, dude. Stop trying to give me those little love taps." So, let's talk about why Iran's general firing a missile at an F-35 is basically the equivalent of having your finger in a cup of water and then removing your finger doesn't really change the cup of water very much. The F-35 Lightning isn't just a fighter jet.

[00:10:44]It's a flying intelligence surveillance and electronic warfare platform that happens to also carry something very specific. The ANASQ239.

[00:10:53]That's the Barracuda electronic warfare suite built by BAE Systems. It provides fully integrated all aspect broadband radar warning, threat geoloccation, jamming, and countermeasures continuously and autonomously from the moment the aircraft gets airborne. The distributed aperture system has six infrared cameras that are fused around the aircraft's skin. It gives the pilot a 360 degree spherical view of the battle space. No blind spots, no surprise launches. And then the ANAPG81, that's an ASA radar in the nose of the fighter jet that simultaneously tracks multiple airborne threats, maps the ground, identifies emitters, and can prosecute electronic attacks against enemy radars at standoff ranges automatically. The jet sees the SAM site before the SAM site even knows that the jet exists. It geoloccates the radar that is attached to the SAM site, jams the frequency, deploys decoys if needed, and can hand the coordinates to a harm ararmed wingman in the same data link transmission. This is not a close call.

[00:11:55]This is a textbook seed mission that Iran is talking about. Chasing away an F-35 and then blowing up. Yeah, you actually just became the target of a seed mission, Iran. Let me help you with your press releases a little bit. But that tells us about the broader chain in the straight of Hormuz right now. F-35s, F-16s, those F-16 CJs that are made to target surfacetoair missiles running armed overwatch in the straight of Hormuz right now. And then you team that up with all the different electronic attack aircraft like the EA18G Growler.

[00:12:25]And there is a mini air force airborne over the straight of Hormuz pretty much every day at this point. Just trusting but verifying that Iran's actually going to come to the table. You made it to the global roundup, my friends. So, we're going to cover a couple of hard-hitting stories today. First of all, Russia tells Rubio to evacuate Kev before the bombs hit on May 24th. Russia launched one of the largest combined strikes in the entire war. 90 missiles, 600 drones, targeting Kev, killing at least four people, injuring a 100 and damaging Ukraine's foreign ministry building for the first time since World War II. Then on May 25th, Foreign Minister Lavrov called Secretary of State Marco Rubio directly and told him Moscow was planning strikes on Kev's decision-making centers and urged Washington to evacuate US diplomatic personnel before those strikes happened.

[00:13:14]Russia pre-announced its intents to drop those bombs where American diplomats were stationed and ask the US to move them first. So at this point, it looks like Russia is trying to preserve their relationship with the United States while stepping up strikes in KE. I mean, it's pretty obvious what they're trying to do. Oh, and then you guys got to hear this. So, there was a home in Las Vegas that was found to be a Chinese Bolab that was also supposedly operating as an Airbnb. But there was an FBI raid that took place on a home on Sugar Springs Drive in Northeast Las Vegas after receiving a tip about a bolab operating in a garage. And the property owner, Zu Jubai, a Chinese national already under the federal microscope for supposedly operating another biolab in Reedley, California in 2023. Congressional investigators, the FBI, they all found vials labeled with lots of nefarious type illnesses that could be passed to people through mice and through other ways. And that brings us to the 40 chest strategic analysis section. So here's what I see as Iran actually wanting from their dual track strategy and having some of their generals possibly freelancing in this traed format. It's more coherent I think in some ways than it looks. The IRGC isn't trying to restart the war necessarily. They're trying to win the negotiation by making the US look like the aggressor here. So every SAM launch, every mine laying boat, every accusation of ceasefire violation is designed to generate a US military response that Iran can point to at the table and say, "Look, Washington started it. Washington's doing this.

[00:14:42]We're just trying to protect our sovereign territory," which it's not their sovereign territory. They get 13.8 miles off their coast. We all know that.

[00:14:50]So it's not their sovereign territory, but that's how they're trying to frame it. They're trying to normalize extortion of that waterway. Basically, the IRGC wants to co-opt certain aspects of the corporate media and have them make it look like it's President Trump's war, like it's just President Trump being the aggressor. The administration is just trying to open up an international waterway that never should have been extorted or be allowed to have been extorted in the first place.

[00:15:12]Basically, over the last few decades, it's just been normalized extortion, and US administrations have stood by and watched it happen. So what Iran thinks they're doing is forcing the administration to accept the terms or make it look like they're escalating during peace talks. Iran's supreme leader threatening those Gulf states.

[00:15:29]That's the same move in a basic different lane. They make US regional basing politically expensive for American partners. They squeeze the operational footprint would be their goal and they're trying to force a deal that limits American presence in the theater. That's their whole goal of what they're trying to accomplish right now.

[00:15:46]And I think it's important for us to remember that Iran's the country that's never won a war, but never lost a negotiation and fully falling back on their proxy tactics is what they're going to do. So, what do you guys think?

[00:15:57]What do you guys think about the pressure campaign that Iran is putting on for peace talks and then simultaneously locking on to US aircraft with their surfaceto-air missiles? Where do you think we go from here? How long do you think this continues? Let me know in the comments below. Would love to hear what you have to say. Go and follow me on X, follow me on Instagram. I post there pretty much every day. And then go ahead and go to Pepperbox. It's a link in the description. Pepper Box is where I'm going to be posting unique content pretty much weekly there. So, you can go there, find unique weekly content. I think you'll really love it. Thanks so much for watching, guys. Really appreciate it. This is Ryan, also known as Max Afterburner, signing off. You can see the IRGC this recent engagement as a Yelp review. They're like five stars and countered American aircraft over Persian Gulf. Great experience. Overall, our air defense battery achieved what we are calling a decisive engagement with multiple US aircraft. One MQ9 destroyed, RQ4, F-35 fired upon. They all retreated immediately. We're giving this five stars because in our reporting framework, we said they retreated and ran from our missiles, but then they did hit us and blow us up. They're like, "Actually, no, we didn't get blown up.

[00:16:59]The radar just briefly went offline after an unexplained explosion near Bondar Abos that we believe was completely unrelated. Would engage again. Highly recommend.