A Shanghai-based geospatial intelligence firm publicly posted satellite images of American stealth fighters, warships, and air bases on social media throughout Operation Epic Fury — exposing a new vulnerability in U.S. military operations.
A Chinese company that specializes in geospatial intelligence has been publicly tracking American military aircraft and warships throughout ongoing U.S. operations against Iran, posting satellite imagery of sensitive assets — including F-22 stealth fighters and aircraft carriers — directly to social media, raising sharp questions about the exposure of U.S. forces to adversarial observation.
Shanghai-headquartered MizarVision posted photos of U.S. military activity across the past week to the social media platform X, documenting the movement of naval vessels and the positions of both combat and support aircraft. Several of the facilities and assets it catalogued were subsequently struck by Iran in missile and drone attacks, which came after the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28.
The strikes have killed Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei and caused widespread disruption to air travel across the Middle East. At least four U.S. troops were killed in Iranian retaliatory attacks. Three Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles assigned to the U.S. Air Force were also downed in what appears to have been a friendly fire incident involving ground-based air defense systems in Kuwait. Qatar separately claims to have shot down two Iranian Sukhoi Su-24 ground-attack jets.
Assets Exposed on Social Media
Among the U.S. assets MizarVision catalogued and posted to X were Lockheed Martin F-22 stealth fighters parked at Israel’s Ovda air base and an array of critical platforms at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan air base, including seven Boeing E-3 airborne warning and control system (AWACS) jets and two Bombardier E-11 communications aircraft.
“Satellite imagery shows the US military continuously transporting supplies to Ovda air force base via [Boeing] C-17s,” MizarVision posted on Feb. 27. “During the same period, seven F-22s were parked on the tarmac, and four F-22s were spotted on the runway.”
Operation Epic Fury launched roughly 24 hours after that observation was posted. Other facilities tracked by the company included al-Udeid air base in Qatar — Washington’s largest military installation in the Middle East — which Iran later struck with drones and missiles. Images MizarVision posted of al-Udeid on Feb. 28 showed the positions of Patriot air defense batteries arrayed around the base.
The company also tracked both U.S. aircraft carriers operating in the region. MizarVision said its satellites “continuously tracked” the USS Gerald R. Ford — the Navy’s newest and largest flattop — following the carrier’s departure from Souda Bay naval base in Crete late last week. Images of the Ford posted on Feb. 26 showed Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and Northrop Grumman E-2D airborne early warning and control aircraft staged on the flight deck.
That same day, the company posted photos of the USS Abraham Lincoln appearing to rendezvous with a resupply vessel in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman. Separate analysis posted on Feb. 28 showed how open-source flight tracking tools can be combined with commercial satellite imagery to locate carriers at sea. Using those methods, MizarVision tracked a U.S. Navy Boeing P-8A maritime patrol aircraft from Isa air base in Bahrain to an area of the Arabian Sea where the Lincoln is known to be operating. “The aircraft is suspected of providing protection and defence for the Lincoln,” the company concluded.
MizarVision’s surveillance was not confined to the Middle East. On the same day it tracked the Ford in the Mediterranean, the company’s satellites photographed Diego Garcia — the Indian Ocean atoll where Washington leases an air base from the United Kingdom. Images of the runway posted on Feb. 26 showed U.S. Lockheed F-16 fighters, Boeing KC-135 tankers, C-17s, and a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had initially refused to allow the U.S. military to use Diego Garcia as a staging area for the Operation Epic Fury strikes before reversing course late on March 1 under pressure from President Donald Trump.
Who Is MizarVision?
MizarVision does not itself operate any satellites. Instead, it uses artificial intelligence and other remote sensing tools to scan and analyze commercially available imagery. The exact source of that imagery remains a matter of ongoing debate, and the company has not disclosed it.
One possibility is China’s indigenously developed Jilin-1 satellite constellation, though some analysts are skeptical the Chinese satellites can produce the image resolution seen in MizarVision’s posts. The South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI) — a group of China-based scholars and former military officers — has suggested the imagery originates from Western companies.
“They are not Chinese satellite imagery. Judging by the satellite ephemeris, it is not difficult to find out that most of the original image are from some American and European companies,” the SCSPI posted to its official X account on Feb. 26.
Although MizarVision operates as a private business, all Chinese companies are subject to directives from the ruling Chinese Communist Party. MizarVision’s account on X indicates the company joined the platform only in January and made its first post on Feb. 24 — as Washington’s military build-up in the Middle East was getting underway.
It remains unclear whether Tehran used the company’s imagery of American troop movements to support its missile and drone strikes across the region.
The Commercial Satellite Revolution
The volume of material published by MizarVision underscores a broader transformation in the availability of geospatial intelligence — one that is reshaping modern warfare.
Cold War-era spy satellites were large, relatively few in number, and had limited ability to reposition. The proliferated low-Earth orbit constellations of the 21st century use large numbers of smaller, cheaper satellites that can deliver global coverage at a fraction of the earlier cost. That reduced price has allowed numerous commercial operators to launch private satellite imaging and analysis services. The dominant players in the sector are the American firms Vantor (formerly Maxar Intelligence) and Planet Labs, alongside Airbus Defence & Space in Europe.
At the recent Air & Space Forces Warfare Symposium in Denver, Colorado, J. Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, demonstrated how commercially available imagery from Planet Labs could be used to estimate the annual output capacity of China’s military aerospace industry — without any classified information.
“I can assure you no classified sources or methods were harmed in making of this presentation,” Dahm said.
He noted that privately operated constellations now feature “hundreds” of satellites capable of providing “extremely high-resolution colour, as well as multi-spectral and near-infrared images” from orbit — imagery that can reach analysts on the ground almost immediately after capture.
That marks a dramatic shift from even three decades ago. Dahm recalled that the Lockheed KH-9 reconnaissance satellite, codenamed Hexagon, had no digital uplink capability and relied on physical film recovery.
“After days or weeks of imaging, the film was rolled up into film recovery capsules and then ejected back to Earth like an escape pod,” Dahm said. “As the pods parachuted in over the ocean, a specially equipped [Lockheed] C-130 would snag the parachute with a trapeze, reel in the capsule and bring the film in to be developed.”
Those recoveries were conducted off the coast of Hawaii, with Lockheed Martin JC-130 aircraft launching from Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu.
Pentagon Awareness and Countermeasures
The U.S. military is not unaware of the threat posed by commercial satellites. Ahead of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Washington released commercially obtained satellite images of Russian troop movements around Ukraine and Belarus to convince European allies that Moscow was preparing to attack rather than conducting exercises — a release that would not have been possible using government spy satellite imagery, owing to concerns about revealing sensitive technical capabilities.
During the 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, the Pentagon sent a flight of Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bombers flying west over the Pacific as a deliberate feint to mislead observers monitoring flight tracking software near the B-2 fleet’s home base in Missouri. The actual strike force traveled east over the Atlantic from Whiteman Air Force Base on a non-stop, round-trip flight to Iran.
The addition of AI tools makes the availability of commercial imagery even more operationally significant. Making use of geospatial intelligence previously required teams of highly skilled human analysts to identify objects and assess their military value. AI can now rapidly scan thousands of images for assets such as aircraft carriers or AWACS jets and deliver locations and timestamps directly to targeting officers.
While strategic-level assets such as stealth bombers and carrier strike groups can be partially shielded through secrecy and deception, the challenge is far steeper for tactical forces operating through closely watched areas or defending fixed installations like air bases — where constant orbital observation offers little room to hide.
Key Takeaways
- Shanghai-based MizarVision publicly posted commercial satellite images of U.S. F-22s, aircraft carriers, E-3 AWACS jets, and air bases across the Middle East and Indian Ocean throughout Operation Epic Fury, which the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28.
- Several U.S. facilities catalogued by MizarVision — including al-Udeid air base in Qatar — were subsequently targeted by Iranian missile and drone strikes; at least four U.S. troops were killed in retaliatory attacks.
- MizarVision uses AI and commercially available imagery rather than its own satellites; despite operating as a private firm, it is subject to Chinese Communist Party directives and only joined X in January 2026.
- The proliferation of cheap, AI-enhanced low-Earth orbit commercial satellite constellations has made real-time geospatial intelligence accessible to state actors, private firms, scholars, and journalists alike — stripping away the secrecy that once shielded military operations.
- The Pentagon has demonstrated awareness of this threat, using operational deception during the 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer B-2 strikes, but analysts warn that tactical forces defending fixed installations face near-constant orbital exposure with few viable countermeasures.
