Amelia Smith

Bar chart titled "Aircraft Over Iran, February 28, 2026" showing the number of aircraft tracked via ADS-B over Iran in 15-minute intervals. Around 30–50 aircraft are visible before 06:00 UTC, then the count drops sharply to zero by approximately 07:30 UTC following the first reported strikes on Iran, and remains at zero for the rest of the day. Timeline markers note key events including the opening strikes on Tehran at 06:10 UTC and subsequent Iranian retaliatory missile launches. A small map of Iran is shown in the upper right corner.

I charted the number of aircraft visible over Iran on ADS-B as the U.S./Israeli strikes began.

For the month of February I read 29 books! Not as many as January, but still a good amount.
Favorites were Woodworking by @emilystjams.bsky.social and
Aggregated Discontent by @harronwawker.bsky.social.

My goal for the year is 100 books read, but I might need to adjust that soon.
#BookSky

Whoops! It's actually 169804. Typo!

A screenshot of FlightRadar24 on Android showing the west coast of UAE and an aircraft tracking through the center of the image.

USN MQ-4C with c/s VVPE804 left Al Dhafra AB, UAE heading west, likely back stateside. Yesterday we saw VVPE661 make the same flight. The last three of the c/s indicates registration, which suggests that these two aircraft (169661 & 196804) may have swapped hexes. #AE7814 #AE7815

A drone wing, broken in two spots laying on a snowy mountain. In the foreground is a shadow of the man taking the video.

A 3-view diagram of an MQ-9A Predator B Big Wing variant. It shows that it has a 79ft wingspan, it is 12.3ft tall, and 35.5ft long.

An MQ-9A crashed in Maidan Wardak, Afghanistan earlier today. It was a Big Wing variant, used (to my knowledge) exclusively by the US and has previously been seen at a US base in Africa. It is distinct by the curved winglet, and has a wingspan of 79ft.

Text in the upper left corner says "Polish AEW&C monitoring drone-type objects; 2025-09-10 Polish SAAB 340 AEW&C monitoring the Poland-Ukraine-Belarus borders NATO Airbus 330 refueling aircraft supporting fighters in the area Approximate radar range of Polish AEW&C Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, and Lublin Voivodeships" The map shows Poland, with a blue line tracking over the southern part of the country illustration a NATO refueling aircraft and an orange line across the eastern portion of the country illustrating a Polish surveillance aircraft. Additionally, a large orange circle covering eastern Poland and western Ukraine & Belarus shows the surveillance coverage of the aircraft.

1x Polish AEW&C aircraft over Poland currently monitoring the eastern border.
Additionally, 1x NATO refueling aircraft was over Polish airspace supporting fighter jets, including at least one F-35, in the task of neutralizing Russian drones that have crossed the Polish border.

The flyover was DEATH11, TIGER was parked on the ground.

At around 4 AM PDT this morning, USAF B-2A Spirit TIGER11 communicated with Seattle Center ATC while traversing Washington airspace on its way back from Joint Base Elmendorf, AK to Whiteman AFB, MO. TIGER11 is one of two B-2As that flew up to Alaska two days ago.

A zoomed out view of a terrain map of Washington State. Imposed on top of the map is a pink line tracing from central Washington to Port Hardy in British Columbia, Canada.

DEATH11 + DEATH12, possible B-2A Spirit bombers heading northwest over Washington at 8 AM local time. A2A comms on 341.750, talking with Seattle Center sectors 32 and 03. DEATH11 heading to YZT, DEATH12 heading to Spokane.
DEATH11 might be heading to Alaska to join TIGER11 + 12.

USAF F-16C with partial afterburner against a background of buildings and trees.

Nice!! I just saw another 77th FS F-16 today.

A black card with writing across the top that says "PLANE TAGS" and "Limited Edition Genuine Skin". Attached to the card is an oval of composite material, writing on the surface says "Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird / SN: 61-7971 / # 0240 of 3,850"

A black card with writing across the top that says "PLANE TAGS" and "Limited Edition Genuine Skin". Attached to the card is an oval of composite material showing a faint honeycomb pattern. The surface shows an etched design of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works logo, and text underneath says "Exterior Skin".

A very kind gift from my dear friend @vcdgf555.bsky.social. A section of the exterior skin of a spare vertical stabilizer from SR-71A 61-7971; this aircraft flew in service w/ USAF from 1967 to early 1990, then w/ NASA from March 1990 to January 1995, then returning to USAF until retirement in 1997.

Why America's giant bunker-busting bombs may have failed to reach their target Reaching Iran's most fortified nuclear enrichment site is a challenge, even for the world's biggest conventional weapons.

OK, if you're one of the two DTRA officer who spent the past 15 years of your career planning for the strike on Iran's Fordo nuclear site you must be SO MAD AT ME FOR THIS ARTICLE!

You know what you should do....

www.npr.org/2025/06/25/n...

Amelia Smith on X: "Today, at least nine NATO and Swedish aircraft flew ISR sorties over Europe: USN P-8As (PS31x, PL31x), EP-3E (LQ36); USAF E-8C (REDEYE6); US Army ARTEMIS (BRIO68); RAF P-8As (STGRY01, STGRY02); Swedish S100D (SVF604), S102B (SVF623). 1/x https://t.co/uF8ERNA4a8" / X Today, at least nine NATO and Swedish aircraft flew ISR sorties over Europe: USN P-8As (PS31x, PL31x), EP-3E (LQ36); USAF E-8C (REDEYE6); US Army ARTEMIS (BRIO68); RAF P-8As (STGRY01, STGRY02); Swedish S100D (SVF604), S102B (SVF623). 1/x https://t.co/uF8ERNA4a8

The last time I saw this seems like January 2022, but it's been about that long since I actively kept up with this stuff.
x.com/ameliairhear...

It's worth mentioning most of their airframes nowadays have been upgraded since this publication.

Slide illustrating a US Customs and Border Protection MQ-9A Reaper. Air and Marine Predator B AIR AND MARINE Ku Satellite C-Band Line of Sight UHF/VHF Antenna Beder Pute EO/IR 2 Wulfsberg Antenna 110 Turbine Engine PROVEN FLIGHT SYSTEMS Predator family of aircraft flown by USAF more than 18 years and 2,000,000 hours More than 10,000 hours in border Security/Homeland Security role PREDATOR Wing Span: 66 ft * Length: 36 ft Max Takeoff Weight: 10,500 lb PAYLOADS: Multi-Spectral Targeting System (MTS-B) EO/IR Lynx Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) PERFORMANCE Range: Up to 3200 nm Law enforcement and civilian communications (UHF/VHF) Max Demonstrated Endurance: 21 hrs Ku-band / Iridium satellite communications links Air Speed Max / Transit / Loiter: 240+/180/110 kts MTS-B EO/IR IMAGE LYNX SAR IMAGE ELAND SIGUR US. Customs and Border Protection 10 OPERATIONAL AIRCRAFT СВР 104, СВР 108, СВР 110, СВР 119, СВР 125

I don't know how current this slide is (the slideshow is dated 2012), but this has been one of my main references for a while.

A screenshot showing a drone flying off the coast of Oman. An orange line traces a jagged path against a blue background, with coastline at the top of the image.

Lancaster's sailors Royal Marines Wildcat and Peregrine drones with the drugs haul on the flight deck. The picture shows a large group of people in the center standing in front of a helicopter and flanked by two drones on either side, with flags and the text "HMS Lancaster" in the lower middle of the image.

In the air over the Gulf of Oman is ZP527, a S-100 Camcopter operated by the Royal Navy under the designation Peregrine. These have been flying here since at least August of last year. Stationed aboard the HMS Lancaster are two Peregrines: ZP527 and ZP526. #ADSB #002E61 #002E60

So what? The literary world is always in the first detonation blast zone. Run towards the searing light. You don't want to live in the world without the arts. Become a writer.

590nm infrared on a cloudy day, shot with my lovely ltm voigtlander color skopar 35/2.5

USS Nimitz (CVN 68) Nimitz-class aircraft carrier coming into Guam - April 18, 2025 #ussnimitz #cvn68

SRC: INT- dvidshub.net

The orientation of the Carl Vinson carrier strike group is in a defensive ring of 25 kilometers with air defense positioned toward the greater threat likelihood: two facing out to the WNW toward Houthi-controlled Yemen, and one covering the rear.

A white 4-engine aircraft against a dark blue-gray background. The aircraft has USAF written on the wing and a black nose.

USAF WC-135R 64-14829 as COBRA29 flying over Washington on March 13. After years of following along with the Constant Phoenix program, it was nice to finally see one in person! #ADSB #AE037F

Just barely sitting out of the water is a large, black submarine. On the right side of the frame is part of the Hood Canal bridge, in the background are green trees and houses.

Just barely sitting out of the water is a large, black submarine. In the background are green trees and houses.

Some more shots of SSN-23 from yesterday. Really cool to see the way the water moves across the bow.

SSN-23 USS Jimmy Carter, a nuclear submarine sitting just barely out of the water, transits near Port Townsend, WA.

SSN-23, USS Jimmy Carter returning home to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor after 4 days at sea. cc @warshipcam.bsky.social

What a nice collection there!

H/t @srplanespotter.bsky.social for bringing my attention to this!

A mangled fragment of an AGM-114R-9X Hellfire missile with debris strewn around it. Text printed on the side of the fragment reads: N: 13707784 M-114R-9x 409917 GP19G836M094

Photos of the missile fragments posted to Twitter by @qalaatalmudiq.bsky.social clearly shows the model number of R-9X.

US CENTCOM tweeted ~1hr ago a video dated Feb 23 showing an airstrike from the perspective of an MQ-9A Reaper over Idlib, Syria. The lack of explosion and resulting damage would suggest that this is (to my knowledge) the first footage of an R9X Hellfire in use.

That Global Hawk is just doing it's regular training but that Reaper is one of CBP's Guardians stationed at Grand Forks AFB. Nice find!

The wildest stats and numbers from Boston's 'Snowmageddon' winter of 2015 Boston got over 110 inches of snow during the historic 2015 winter — and that wasn't the only wild number. Here’s a look back at some of the most remarkable "Snowmaggedon" statistics.

Ten years ago today, we woke up to what some were calling “the Blizzard of 2015.” Here’s a look back at some of the most remarkable statistics from the "Snowmageddon" winter.

A light blue background of water with a cormorant in the center holding a flounder in its mouth.

Went to a beach across from the Everett Naval Station to look at ships today, saw a cormorant having a snack instead.