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The first missile didnβt just light up the radar screenβit ripped apart a carefully maintained illusion. For years, transits through the Strait of Hormuz had followed a tense but predictable script: surveillance, shadowing vessels, radio warnings, and the occasional fast boat probing too close for comfort. It was a choreography of deterrence, where both sides understood the rules even as they tested the edges. But in a single violent moment, that script was torn in half. What had begun as a βroutineβ passage through one of the most volatile waterways on Earth transformed into open confrontation. Iran believed it could calibrate the escalation, send a message without triggering catastrophe. What it misjudged was not the hardware facing itβbut the speed, integration, and discipline behind it.
