Brian Kubiak

//The Wire//2300Z November 13, 2026// //ROUTINE// //BLUF: MORE FIRINGS COME TO LIGHT AT PENTAGON. AMERICAN/IRANIAN TARGETING CONTINUES IN PERSIAN GULF. MICROSOFT OUTAGE REPORTED AROUND THE WORLD, CRITICAL GOVERNMENT SERVICES AFFECTED.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE----- -International Events- Middle East: Targeting throughout the region has continued to escalate, with several missile strikes reported overnight. At least one vessel was struck by Iranian forces in the Gulf, resulting in unknown damage. American forces conducted more strikes in Sirik, as well as possibly other areas along the Iranian coast which have been struck regularly for several days. Analyst Comment: Iranian forces also claimed to have struck an American radar installation in Bahrain, however this is unconfirmed. Pro-Iran social media accounts are claiming that the strike targeted the AR-327 radar array at the Jabal al-Dukhan Long Range Radar site, which was already struck earlier during the war, with that earlier imagery being circulated as new. Either way, this is a big target, and will be easy to confirm within a few days with fresh imagery, and it's possible that the target that was struck, was a different one than is being claimed. This distinction is important because if this strike did take place, it would be the first strike of a target on the ground in Bahrain in many months. United Kingdom: This afternoon sirens were sounded on base at RAF Lakenheath, Mildenhall, and Feltwell, with locals reporting the incident possibly being related to a drone incursion. All three bases were locked down, and residents who live adjacent to the bases reported the sirens sounding during the night, while base security procedures were enacted. This is a developing situation at the time of this report, and more information is expected once the situation is resolved. -HomeFront- Washington D.C. - Several high-profile firings and personnel changes became public at the Pentagon. The USS MICHAEL MURPHY (DDG-112) pulled into port this morning after a long 11-month deployment to the Middle East. Immediately following her return the firing of her commanding officer was leaked. Commander Caitlin Cunningham was relieved of duty back in September (while the Destroyer was underway), due a "loss of confidence" (which is a standard catch-all term) related to unknown reasons. Separately, Rear Adm. Brian Monahan resigned from his position of serving as the Attending Physician for the United States Congress and United States Supreme Court. Monahan's resignation allegedly came after an investigation was launched into unspecified misconduct, though the details of these allegations are not clear. Finally, the entire command team of the USS SOUTH DAKOTA (SSN-790) was fired back in October, after the attack submarine arrived back in Connecticut. The command team was dismissed while standing on the pier a few minutes after arriving back home, due to the submarine running aground underwater. Analyst Comment: The last firing is the most clearly known and most routine. A submarine failing to maintain basic navigational standards resulting in a collision that could have killed the entire crew is certainly something that would normally result in the command team being dismissed. The other firings are more unknown, however the war in the Middle East is certainly causing strain among deployed forces. USA: Yesterday afternoon a large-scale outage of Microsoft services was noted, which continued throughout the night into this morning. Microsoft stated that the outage is not due to cyberattack, but rather a server failure due to high load. -----END TEARLINE----- Analyst Comment: Due to the widespread prevalence of Microsoft products within government agencies, the impact of this outage was significant. Court cases were delayed, some banking services were halted, and in Europe the outage resulted in patients being unable to fill medical prescriptions, as the outage brought down the NHS email system in the United Kingdom. Most importantly, as this incident was allegedly not caused by malign action, the fragility of critical systems under even peaceful conditions is a constant reminder that centralizing these systems is not a good idea. An email client going down should not prevent patients from receiving life-saving medication, nor should it result in banks closing for the day. However, in the modern era these are not just very likely contingencies, but daily occurrences now. This afternoon, the FAA announced an unplanned emergency ground stop of all aircraft in the United States. The reason for the nationwide shutdown is reportedly due to issues with radar and communications systems, which have affected multiple airspace sectors. Communications outages were initially observed at approximately 3:15pm in New York, and spread from there. As of this report the ground stop is still in place as the issue is being worked, with this latest communications outage once again highlighting the fragility of critical communications infrastructure nationwide. Analyst: S2A1 Research: publish.obsidian.md/s2underg… NomadNet: 5fa68c88be727a0e1a250a75e5e79269 Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report. //END REPORT//