The US-Iran War over Tehran’s efforts to make the nuclear bomb has flared again, just as the defence companies landed in London well in time to set up their tents – chalets – at the bedecked Farnborough International Airshow.
FIA 2026 is going to be one of the most significant shows ever, as it is happening during wartimes in the oil rich strategic Gulf, where Iran has blocked the 32-km wide narrow choke point of Strait of Hormuz, restricting export of oil from the Gulf States. The Gulf Fireball, as we put on the India Strategic cover in our April edition, is rolling on with newer weapons, most powerful explosives, and most sophisticated radar and satellite-guided precision technologies through fighters, long range bombers, and naval ships.
President Donald Trump has unleashed American firepower ‘like never before’ and even sent B-1B Lancer strategic bombers from US soil itself to strike Iran’s deep underground mountainous nuclear locations more than 11,000 km away. Besides the Rockwell/ Boeing B-1B, USAF unleashed Northrop Grumman’s B-2 Spirit bunker buster war jets, General Atomics’ highly advanced unmanned MQ 9B Reapers for recce and strikes, Lockheed Martin’s F 22s and F 35s, Boeing’s shipboard F/A 18 Super Hornets, and various missiles including the 1991 Gulf War hotshot Raytheon’s Tomahawk, which is now in a much more sophisticated avatar.
I mean every US defence company has a lot to trump about, as the war means the US, and global defence industries associated with US companies, have the opportunity to manufacture and supply replacements and apparently with more advanced technologies, on a massive scale. In fact, the process is already on as the US Air Force, Navy and Army have indeed exhausted much of their stores since the war began on February 28 this year.
Iran is there all along on the right side of the Gulf, and notwithstanding the lack of sophistication in its weapons, mainly missiles, ships and armed fishing vessels, hasn’t done badly. It has withstood the US and western firepower, particularly by hitting US bases across the waterway in Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Quite unfortunate, as plenty of Iranians have particularly made their homes in the United Arab Emirates, and the war would unsettle their lives forever.
The US had one objective for the war: To destroy Iran’s nuclear assets already built, and its potential nuclear capability.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage in the Persian Gulf, or Arabian Gulf, depending on which side of the waterway you are, is closer to Iran, with only two channels of required depth for shipping.
Iran has tried to turn the tables by seizing its control. To free it is now the second objective of President Trump, and much of the world. And all the Arab Gulf States.
Nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies come from the Gulf, and the Gulf waterway has always been free for civil, military and oil supply shipping.
I myself have traversed on naval ships from Fujairah to Kuwait during peaceful times, and once again from Bahrain to Kuwait. Way back, and those travels were like tours to enjoy. With good wines and beers and excellent foods – which are always well stocked on ships – and laughter with crews.
As an editor and writer on Defence and Foreign Affairs, I hope that we celebrate Peace with a Happy 2027.
— Gulshan Rai Luthra
