F/A-18

At least two times over the past week, Iran's military has seemingly provoked the U.S. Navy by using its Sadegh drones to shadow the USS Nimizt aircraft carrier operating in the Persian Gulf while creating a "dangerous" operating environment for F/A-18 pilots in the area (we noted the encounters here and here).  

But this morning, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decided to take a shot at the U.S. via a medium much more familiar to the Trump White House: Twitter.

As the world focuses on the escalating rhetoric between President Trump and Kim Jong-Un of North Korea, Iranian forces seem to also be growing increasingly hostile toward American Navy operations in the Persian Gulf with the AP reporting a second "dangerous" encounter with an Iranian drone in the span of less than a week.  Just last week we noted that an Iranian drone came within 100 feet of an F/A-18 operating from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier forcing pilots to take evasive measures to avoid a collision. 

Back in May, Trump raised some eyebrows when he offered his candid opinion to Time Magazine on the advantages of steam catapult systems as compared to the Navy’s new Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) currently being installed on a new generation of aircraft carriers...apparently he's a fan of the "goddamned steam" systems if you must know.

Russia’s Monday decision to suspend a memorandum of cooperation with the US-led coalition in retaliation after a US jet shot down a Syrian Army plane has rattled some US allies, who fear escalating tensions between Russia and the coalition. In what it called a "precautionary measure," Australia became the first coalition member to suspend flights in Syria, claiming it's too dangerous for its planes to fly without the agreement, according to BBC.

Authored by James Durso via RealClearDefense.com,

Iran’s aviation sector will spend much more time taxiing before takeoff if the Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act Of 2017 becomes law. The bill enjoys bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate, and the House of Representatives is considering a companion bill, the Iran Ballistic Missiles and International Sanctions Enforcement Act, which also enjoys bipartisan support.