You can understand why the stress of an all-nighter at the coalface in the Pentagon might lead to an urgent need for carbs, but the next time the world is on the brink of a major conflict, the US Department of Defense might consider sending out for burgers. Their pizza deliveries have become the subject of intense speculation.

An account on X, Pentagon Pizza Report, has taken to monitoring the traffic at pizza takeaway spots in Arlington County, Virginia, home of America’s military headquarters.

And such is the apparent reliability of the so-called “pizza index”, it is now being cited by Open-Source Intelligence sleuths who usually rely on live flight-tracking data, and satellite imagery of troop movements, to spot the early signs of military strikes.