{"id":2249,"date":"2026-04-27T07:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/?p=2249"},"modified":"2026-04-27T07:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:15:07","slug":"14-acres-of-sovereign-u-s-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/?p=2249","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;14 Acres of Sovereign U.S. Territory&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"boldgrid-section\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-lg-12 col-md-12 col-xs-12 col-sm-12\">\n<p class=\"\">I thought I would get an update on US assets in the Persian Gulf. Mostly just so I could embed this tweet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Combined, the three flattops represent roughly 14 acres of sovereign U.S. territory that can be positioned anywhere around the world within weeks, and embark 27 squadrons of more than 200 aircraft. The nine guided-missile destroyers are equipped with 846 VLS tubes and loaded with\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ELX1Yjcha7\">https:\/\/t.co\/ELX1Yjcha7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ian Ellis (@ianellisjones) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ianellisjones\/status\/2048510974110634102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">If you can&#8217;t read the whole thing, here it is:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">&#8220;<span class=\"css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3\">Combined, the three flattops represent roughly 14 acres of sovereign U.S. territory that can be positioned anywhere around the world within weeks, and embark 27 squadrons of more than 200 aircraft. The nine guided-missile destroyers are equipped with 846 VLS tubes and loaded with a mix of offensive and defensive missiles. The undersea escorts \u2013 at least three, if not more, fast-attack subs \u2013 provide additional VLS capacity, among many other capabilities.<\/span>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">That is a lot fire power. If you are not following Ian Ellis on X, you are doing it wrong.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">And for one more update, I thought I would share the latest episode of What&#8217;s Going on With Shipping, where Sal discusses how effective the US embargo on Iran has been. In short, yes, it has been effective. They are not necessarily boarding every ship, more like herding them into specific locations. What really strikes me is how many vessels there are that are &#8216;false-flagged&#8217; or stateless. The dark fleet is way larger than anything I had imagined.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">How Effective is the US Blockade Against Iran?<\/p>\n<p>1\u20e3Intercepting Foreign Tankers<br \/>\n2\u20e3The Storage Crisis: Iran\u2019s Oil Well Pressure<br \/>\n3\u20e3The Blockade Biting Hard<br \/>\n4\u20e3Kettled &amp; Drifting: Tankers Under Surveillance<br \/>\n5\u20e3The Impact on the Iranian Economy <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1bPngdBnH4\">pic.twitter.com\/1bPngdBnH4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) \ud83d\udea2\u2693\ud83d\udc2a\ud83d\ude92\ud83c\udff4\u200d\u2620\ufe0f (@mercoglianos) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mercoglianos\/status\/2048218755772166336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"\"><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Just in case you can&#8217;t watch the video in the Tweet, here is the YouTube channel that you should definitely follow.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Is the US Blockade Against Iran Really Working?\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w2nJH8D4p18?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">So what&#8217;s next? I don&#8217;t know, but there is this.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\ud83d\udea8 I THINK WE\u2019VE SEEN THIS BEFORE\u2026 SO WE PROBABLY KNOW WHAT\u2019S COMING NEXT<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Air Force airbridge into the Middle East ran at full intensity overnight, with increased traffic flowing into bases across the UAE and Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t routine logistics. This is\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/m7mlkZoN5y\">pic.twitter.com\/m7mlkZoN5y<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mossad Commentary (@MOSSADil) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MOSSADil\/status\/2048666261471609169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"\"><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script> &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thought I would get an update on US assets in the Persian Gulf. Mostly just so I could embed this tweet.&nbsp; Combined, the three flattops represent roughly 14 acres of sovereign U.S. territory that can be positioned anywhere around the world within weeks, and embark 27 squadrons of more than 200 aircraft. The nine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bullets"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Free-Iran.jpg","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2250,"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions\/2250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cognitivewarriorproject.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}