Russia feeds Iran satellite data on U.S. warship locations in Middle East

"The Washington Post reported on March 6, 2026, citing three anonymous U.S. officials, that Russia has been passing targeting intelligence to Iran since the war with the United States and Israel began on Feb. 28. The intelligence includes the locations and movements of U.S. warships, aircraft, and radar systems operating across the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. The National Broadcasting Company confirmed the reporting independently the same day, citing its own sources familiar with U.S. intelligence. The Central Intelligence Agency's assessment described the Russian assistance as a "pretty comprehensive effort."\n\nIran operates only a small number of military-grade satellites. Russia's constellation is far larger and more capable, giving Iran access to space-based imagery and signals intelligence it could not generate on its own. Iran's targeting capabilities had been degraded in the war's first days, when the United States and Israel struck Iranian radar, communications, and intelligence infrastructure."

"The precision of Iranian strikes on American installations improved as the war progressed, which intelligence analysts said was consistent with external assistance. Iran struck early warning radars, command and control centers, and communications posts at U.S. bases across Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Nicole Grajewski, a Russia-Iran specialist and assistant professor at Sciences Po in Paris, told the Washington Post that the types of targets Iran was hitting, and the accuracy with which it was hitting them, suggested enhanced intelligence support.\n\nGrajewski said Russia was likely sharing both electronic intelligence — radar signals and radio wavelengths — and what she described as "live-time dynamic targeting information," meaning specific coordinates passed quickly enough to enable an imminent strike. Dara Massicot, a specialist on the Russian military at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told United24 Media that the Iranian strikes reflected a "very targeted way" of going after command and control, which aligned with satellite-derived intelligence."

"Russia's public position on the war has been to condemn U.S.-Israeli strikes as what it called "unprovoked aggression" and to call for a diplomatic resolution. The covert intelligence cooperation directly contradicts that public stance. Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei on his election on March 9, pledging "unwavering support" for Tehran.\n\nU.S. officials did not immediately publicly confirm or formally confront Russia about the intelligence sharing. Trump, when asked by a reporter about Russian intelligence assistance to Iran, said the question was "stupid." "That's an easy problem compared to what we're doing here," the president said during an East Room roundtable on college sports. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, when asked on 60 Minutes whether Russian assistance put U.S. troops at greater risk, said, "No one is putting us in danger. We're putting their guys in danger.""

"Russia's decision to assist Iran is best understood against the backdrop of its own war in Ukraine. Grajewski said Russia's motive is to force the United States to draw down its weapons arsenals by supporting Iran's strikes on American forces, meaning fewer precision munitions available for Ukraine. The conflict also produced a bump in demand for Russian oil and gas exports that had been battered by Western sanctions. Russia and Iran signed a strategic partnership agreement in 2025 that included provisions for countering shared threats, stopping short of a mutual defense obligation.\n\nIran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News the week the intelligence sharing was reported that "military cooperation between Iran and Russia is no secret." Russia did not officially confirm or deny the reporting. The Kremlin and the Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment from multiple news organizations."

"The intelligence relationship between Russia and Iran has a documented history that predates the current war. Russia supplied Iran with the S-300 air defense system, delivered in 2016 after years of delays driven by international pressure. During Iran's 2024 strike on Israel, Iran used drones that incorporated Russian design elements, according to European and Ukrainian assessments. In 2025, Russia and Iran signed a 20-year comprehensive cooperation agreement covering defense, trade, and strategic coordination.\n\nWhat the March 6 reporting established was that the cooperation had crossed into direct real-time battlefield intelligence sharing against U.S. forces during an active war. That is a qualitatively different level of involvement than arms transfers or diplomatic coordination, and it marked the first public indication that a second major U.S. adversary had sought to get directly involved in the conflict."

"The legal and strategic implications of Russia's assistance are distinct from the intelligence itself. Under international law, providing targeting data to a belligerent that uses it to attack the forces of another state is a form of co-belligerency, though the threshold at which intelligence sharing rises to unlawful participation in a conflict is genuinely contested in international legal scholarship. The United States has provided Ukraine with targeting intelligence used to strike Russian forces and Russian-occupied territory throughout the war in Ukraine.\n\nNone of the U.S. officials cited in the reporting indicated the administration was considering retaliatory measures against Russia for the assistance. The parallel to U.S. intelligence support for Ukraine was noted by analysts and lawmakers questioning whether the administration could credibly object to Russia doing to American forces in the Gulf what the United States had been doing to Russian forces in Ukraine for years."