The $36M Satellite That Let Iran Spy on US Forces

0:00 All right, there's still a lot of stuff going on. We got a refinery on fire in Australia. We got the Treasury Secretary saying that we are going to not be lifting the sanctions on Russian or Iranian oil. We got spy satellites launched from China that might have potentially had an impact on Iran targeting US military bases during Operation Epic Fury. An amphibious ready group that's still heading to the Middle East according to the Washington Post. There's a lot of stuff happening, so we're going to get into it. So, the first thing I want to talk about is NASA. Now, I'm not talking about the moon flyby, which I'm sure some of you have controversial opinions of. I'm talking about the NASA X59 quiet supersonic research aircraft. NASA Aeronautics posted a video on April 15th of 2026 that showed the X59 flying during its first wheels up flight,

0:46 meaning landing gear retracted. Now, this is going to be a huge deal. I want people to understand how important and how crucial this aircraft is. Because what they're trying to figure out how to do is they're trying to figure out how they can manufacture a supersonic aircraft that can travel supersonic speeds without creating sonic booms, which is why they're calling them quiet supersonic aircraft. It's for research purposes, but ultimately what they're hoping this is going to lead to is one day have commercial airlines that are supersonic aircraft or at least be able to pick between supersonic and non-supersonic and it'll literally cut your travel time in half. So, if it takes you 24 hours to fly to Australia from the east coast to the United States, well, it's only going to take you 12 hours, which is a pretty big jump, right? That's a huge difference.

1:31 This isn't the first time that the X59 is first flying. that took place back in October of 2025, but this is the first wheels up flight which actually took place on April 3rd of 2026. The pilot was NASA test pilot Jim Clueless. I wonder who gave him that. His name is Jim Les. His call sign is Clue because yeah, you get it. Jim Clueless. The aircraft departed from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Facility in Edwards, California. And the duration of the flight was approximately 90 minutes at an altitude of approximately 20,000 ft. The top speed that was reached was around 460 mph. And by April 10th of 2026, the aircraft had completed eight test flights as part of its envelope expansion campaign. Like I was saying before, why this matters is because the X59 is the centerpiece of NASA's quiet

2:18 supersonic technology. Like I said, traditional supersonic aircraft create loud sonic booms that shatter windows and annoy people on the ground, which is why the United States and most other countries ban supersonic flight over land. However, if they can somehow figure out a way to commercialize supersonic flight while maintaining quiet commercial travel over land, this would be huge. Now, they've described the noise that it makes after flying over land as a thump or a rumble on the ground instead of a boom. A lot of people are always saying like, "Hey, this thing's kind of a waste of money." I get it. You don't really see any benefit to it right now. But if it's say it takes 6 hours to fly from New York City to California to Los Angeles, it'll go from a 6-h hour flight to a 3-hour flight like that. Or if you're flying, I think it was like 8 hours to fly to the United Kingdom from Atlanta where I flew

3:05 out of when I went to the UK way back in the day. It would cut that in half. So 4 hours. Like I said, this is going to make it a lot easier for people to get around faster, saving time on like getting bad jet lag traveling from east to west coast or from west to east coast, you know, because obviously you lose all this time if you're flying to the east coast from the west coast in the United States. Anyway, I think this is really cool and I hope that a lot of people find this cool, too. Shifting over to Australia, there was a major fire that broke out on Wednesday night, April 15th of 2026 around 11 to 11:15 p.m. local time at the Viva Energy's Gilong Oil Refinery in Victoria, Australia, which is one of the country's only two remaining operational oil refineries. Only two. And one of them is on fire. Really bad timing. You know what I'm saying? Now, emergency services received multiple reports of explosions

3:51 and flames. And flames reportedly shot up as high as 60 m or 200 ft in the MO gas unit. like the motor gasoline unit. Around 50 firefighters responded and battled the blaze for a number of hours. And as of early Thursday, April 16th, the fire was still not fully extinguished. But some people were describing it as well contained within a specific section of the plant. Now, so far, there's been no injuries reported from this fire, and residents in nearby suburbs were told to stay indoors, close their windows, avoid smoke, and there was a watch and alert issued. The cause is believed to have been equipment failure. According to Fire Rescue Victoria, though, Viva Energy is still investigating. Obviously, it just took place. It's going to be tough. They're going to have to do a full investigation to figure out what happened. The reason why this is important, outside of just the fact that this is one of two oil

4:38 refineries that they have, is the fact that this refinery processes up to 120,000 barrels of crude per day. It produces gasoline, diesel, liquid petroleum gas, jet fuel, aviation gas, and other fuels as well. It supplies more than half of Victoria's fuel and about 10% of Australia's total fuel. Like I said, Australia only has two working refineries. This one and Ample's Litten refinery in Brisbane. Together, they meet roughly 20% of the country's fuel needs. The rest of it is imported, which means that the situation in the Middle East with the straight of Hormuz probably hitting the Australians pretty hard at the pump right now. can pretty much guarantee that the countries had historically low fuel stockpiles with around 30 to 39 days estimated for

5:23 products like diesel, jet fuel, and gas in recent assessments, making that domestic refining capability extremely critical to their population. Anyway, I hope that they can figure out what happened. The full extent of the damage has not been really determined just yet, and it could take days up to weeks or months depending on what needs to be repaired or replaced. This is probably the worst possible time this could happen because there is a massive fuel and oil shortage globally and it's probably going to make gas out there and diesel and everything else literally skyrocket. I'm sorry for all my Australian friends out there. I know you guys are probably going through it. Anyway, bouncing back to Washington DC today. Speaking of oil and fuel and petroleum products, the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessant, announced on April 15th of 2026 during a press

6:10 conference with the White House press secretary, Carolyn Levit, that the United States would not be renewing temporary sanctions waiverss on Russian or Iranian oil, effectively resuming full enforcement of sanctions on both countries oil exports. There was a short-term exemption that was issued in March of 2026 due to the fact that there's global energy prices surging triggered by the USIsrael military conflict with Iran. But that's why they put out this sanction waiver to kind of ease that burden for everybody. In mid-March 2026, as oil prices spiked due to the conflict, the Treasury issued a narrow 30-day window, allowing the sale of 130 million barrels of Russian oil that was already loaded up on tankers at sea, primarily benefiting buyers like India. A similar short-term

6:56 authorization was granted for approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian oil in floating storage that was set to expire around April 19th of 2026. Now, the Treasury Secretary framed this as physical interventions to add supply to global markets quickly without allowing new production or long-term deals. And the goal for that was to stabilize prices a little bit while redirecting some oil away from China, which is a major buyer of the discounted sanctioned crude oil from both of those countries. Here's the clip of the Treasury Secretary saying that we're not renewing it. >> We will not be renewing the general license on Russian oil and we will not be renewing the general license on Iranian oil. Now, the reason why this matters is because the sanctions target Russia's energy sector to limit funding for the war in Ukraine. This brief

7:42 waiver allowed some stranded cargos to clear, but full sanctions are now back in force, and Russia has historically had shadow fleets and discounts and alternative buyers like China and India to circumvent these types of restrictions. Now, as far as Iran's concerned, sanctions were aimed at them to curb their revenue for their nuclear program, as well as regional proxies that they're funding like Hezbollah and Hamas, and also military activities in general. But, as you're aware, there's a US blockade on all Iranian ports, and they're not allowing anything to go in or out right now. And so, these sanctions resuming is only going to tighten that squeeze on tan's oil income. Now, something else that a lot of people haven't really been talking about is there was a article from USA Today that came out. It was published on the 15th of April of 2026 that said, "The Pentagon has quietly accelerated

8:27 contingency planning for a possible US military operation in Cuba in preparation for a potential order from President Donald Trump to intervene." According to USA Today, the report was based on two sources that were familiar with the matter, though they did it anonymously, probably because they're not authorized to disclose it publicly, so that's why they do this types of stuff. According to the directive, officials at the Pentagon and other parts of the US government received instructions from President Trump's White House to ramp up preparations for a possible military operation against Cuba. Now, this includes a wide range of scenarios, including limited strikes, blockade enforcement, or larger scale intervention, although that's not specified in the reporting. Now, in response to the USA Today report, the Pentagon said, quote, "It plans for a range of contingencies and remains prepared to execute the president's orders as directed. It did not confirm

9:14 or deny the specific Cuba focused ramp up. So, they didn't say yes, we're preparing for that or no, we're not preparing for that. They just said they plan for a range of contingencies and remain prepared to execute whatever the president wants them to execute. Regardless, this is building on months of heightened US pressure on Cuba. Because since January of 2026, the Trump administration has curbed oil shipments to the island, including threats or tariffs on third countries or and seizures of tankers, which has contributed to severe fuel shortages, widespread blackouts, and economic strain in Cuba. They've had rolling blackouts constantly over there. It's been really bad. Now, the president's repeatedly signaled interest in Cuba, calling it a quote failed state and a mess. And he's also said things like, quote, "Cuba is next." Now, obviously, Cuba's government is very defiant. They've been a communist nation since

10:01 JFK, for Christ's sake. They're not going to release their grip on that country anytime soon. Now, the US has long maintained a policy of economic pressure on Cuba's communist government through embargos, sanctions, and things like that with goals oftentimes tied to human rights, democracy, promotion, and countering Russian and Chinese influence in the region. But there seems to be a renewed interest in Cuba now. So more than I've seen at least for the past couple of decades. Anyway, we'll see if anything ends up popping off there. Maybe if there ends up being a truce and a complete ceasefire and all the hostilities stop in the Middle East, maybe something else will pop off. Now, separately from that, bouncing back over to the Middle East, according to the Washington Post, who put out an article on the 15th of April of 2026, they stated that roughly 4,200 sailors and

10:47 Marines from the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are expected to arrive in the Middle East later this month. The deployment is part of a broader US military buildup that you've been seeing unfold right before your eyes. There's tons of carriers out there. There's carrier strike groups, destroyers. There's already a bunch of ships out there, like a lot. A lot of them are actually enforcing this blockade on all of the Iranian ports. The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group consists of three ships. The USS Boxer LHD4, which is a Wasp class amphibious assault ship, which is the flagship, and it functions as a small aircraft carrier, can carry and operate F-35 Bravo stealth fighters, MV22 Osprey tiltrotor transport helicopters, and also landing craft. Then you've got the USS Portland LPD27 which is a San Antonio class amphibious transport dock.

11:33 And then you've got the USS Commtock LSD45 which is a Whidby Island class dock landing ship. Now, the embarked 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit is a self-contained marine air ground task force or a MAGTA that is consisting of roughly 2,200 to 2,500 Marines plus another 1,700 to 2,000 Navy sailors that are operating the ships, which brings the total to approximately 4,200 personnel in total. Now, the unit's highly flexible and they can conduct a wide variety of different things including amphibious landings, raids, humanitarian assistance, or larger operations like any larger contingency operations. It's not an invasion force so much as just a reaction force, like a QRF, if you will, to anything to any type of situation. Amphibious ready groups and muse and stuff like that have

12:20 responded to humanitarian disasters like the Dau Fukushima plant when it was melting down after the tsunami in 2012 and the earthquake in Haiti. We responded with that. So things like that. Now, like we've talked about before, they're not going to be the only amphibious ready group that's out there because the USSE amphibious ready group with the 31st MU on board is also in the region as well. So that's two amphibious ready groups. That's a lot of ships. Plus all of the carrier strike groups, all of the destroyers, everything. There's a significant presence out there right now. I think a lot of people think that it's just going to be deterrence. I don't think people are predicting an invasion necessarily, but until there's a a signed declaration of peace or ceasefire that's like affirmed by both sides, I feel like everything's up in the air right now. So, we'll see how this plays out. Separately from the

13:05 ships out there, the commander of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, posted a statement on the official SentCom page on the 15th of April of 2026 that said, quote, "A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented as US forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East. An estimated 90% of Iran's economy is fueled by international trade by sea. In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, US forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea. I'm assuming that the reason why that's the most common place for trade to happen is because the vast mountains in Iran number one is would make it pretty hard. And then on top of that is what's the country right next to Iran? Well, I mean they've got Iraq on one side obviously, but the other side is Afghanistan. You'd be hardressed to get supplies through

13:51 Afghanistan up into Iran because the people that run Afghanistan are going to want to take a cut. Like little gangster stuff, right? Makes sense why this would be having such a significant impact. And you got to think about that. Even if China is supplying Iran with stuff, they know that the Afghans would want a cut of anything going through there or there's stuff that's going to go missing. Now, the blockade in the straight of four moves that the United States was doing on Iranian ports started on the 13th of April of 2026, which was Monday of this past week. And this took place shortly after the US Iran talks were, I guess, confirmed to have not worked the first goound in Islamabad. Now, that being said, apparently there's plans in place. I've been seeing from different various news sources saying that there may be a second round potentially going in Islamabad this coming weekend although

14:36 that's not confirmed as of yet. Now the last thing I wanted to bring up is the fact that you know we were talking about China trading with Iran. There was a Financial Times investigation that cited leaked Iranian military documents and they timestamped coordinate lists. They had satellite imagery and orbital analysis saying that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force secretly acquired the TE01 Bravo visual imaging satellite in late 2024. The satellite was built and launched by China's Earth Eye Company, which is a commercial firm with ties to China's space sector. And apparently Iran paid roughly $36.6 6 million for the system, including the launch, technical support, and access to a global network of Chinese ground stations operated by EMPAT for realtime

15:24 control and data processing. This was done via an inorbit delivery arrangement after the satellite was already in space. Now, Iranian commanders directed the satellite to monitor key US and allied military sites across the Middle East to support targeting for unmanned aerial vehicle and missile strikes. There's a specific example of this that was highlighted in this Financial Times article where they said that the TE01 Bravo captured imagery of Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia on March 13th, 14th, and 15th of 2026, just hours before the major Iranian missile and unmanned aerial vehicle strike on the 14th of March. And on that date, President Trump publicly confirmed that US aircraft were hit and damaged at the base, including five US Air Force refueling planes or KC135s. Apparently,

16:11 the satellite also surveiled other sites around the time of claimed Iranian attacks, including Muafak Salty Air Base in Jordan and other locations near US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama, Bahrain, as well as the Herbiel airport and related infrastructure in Iraq. This is a pretty big deal because it demonstrates that the ties between Iran and China are much deeper than people anticipated, especially when it comes to military technical cooperation, like using dual use space technology and stuff like that. China's positioning such systems as commercial, but analysts have definitely said that the links to the People's Liberation Army and concerns over proliferation kind of supersede that, right? Because obviously like the CCP and the private sector in China are really all the same thing. It's all tied together. Anyway, it's raised a lot of questions about China's role in the recent conflict, even as

16:59 Beijing denies any type of direct involvement in escalations. The Chinese embassy in Washington called the report untrue, speculative, and disinformation, stating that Beijing upholds an impartial stance and promotes peace talks. Now, this has been covered by tons of people, including Reuters, Times of Israel, Middle East. I mean, a lot of people. Anyway, that's all the time I've got for today. I appreciate you guys as always. I hope that we are a little bit more informed than we were yesterday. A lot of stuff going on. Like I said, I'm going to try to follow up on some of these things, especially I'm very curious about the situation in Australia with the AR refinery cuz that's going to have a significant impact on them. As far as how things are going in the Middle East, your guess is as good as mine. As we get more information, I'll keep you guys updated. Right. Don't forget if you want to support the channel or you like supporting the channel, you can like the videos or subscribe or leave a comment or you can buy some merch through the link in our bio. Helps pay for editors because

17:45 editors are expensive. And we'll see you guys in the next