Twelve US Air Force F-22 Raptors have arrived at RAF Lakenheath, supported by a large-scale aerial refuelling operation that has triggered speculation of preparations for a possible strike on Iran.
The Raptors deployed from Langley Air Force Base under the callsigns TABOR51, TABOR61 and TABOR71, with four aircraft in each flight. They were supported across the Atlantic by multiple KC-135 and KC-10 tankers flying under the GOLD callsign series as part of Operation Coronet East 083.
According to flight tracking and open-source intelligence data, over 30 US tankers have repositioned into Europe and the Middle East in recent days. This follows reports that US Navy carriers USS Nimitz and USS Carl Vinson are converging in the Arabian Sea.
Observers noted the F-22s were not visible on public tracking platforms but were identified by military spotters and livestreams. Videos show the Raptors arriving at dusk in Suffolk, escorted by the transatlantic tanker force.
The Pentagon has made no public comment, but the arrival of stealth fighters and the surge in refuelling assets adds to signs of a US posture shift as tensions rise with Iran.
The F-22 Raptor is the most advanced air superiority fighter in the world. Its presence in Europe, particularly in such numbers, is often seen as either a high-end deterrent or a forward deployment ahead of major operations.
I have to admit, though I’m thoroughly against the idea of a nuclear-armed Iran – the very thought of facilitating US military operations in this climate leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. We ought to leave them to it, this is an American problem. surely they ought not to require assistance from some random country who hasn’t fought a war in years.
None of this would have happened if Trump was president.
Lol. This is what happens if the US withdraws from the world and focuses inward – all sorts of problems creep out of the woodwork.
Most of these problems are American made though. Literally the state of Israel and the Iranian regime are both products of US foreign policy.
No one other than Israel is asking them to bomb Iran.
Their own Congress and supporters are asking them not to do it.
Their intervention is not required.
The UK was certainly pivotal in the creation of Israel, as much as the US was.
I’m not sure we can say intervention is not required. Are we just going to let Iran get Nukes? The same regime that is funding and arming terrorist groups throughout the region and beyond, that are actively working against Western interests.
Not to mention that Iran is a staunch Russian ally that has been providing thousands of drones etc.
Oh come on, Jim
Persia (renamed Iran in 1935 at its own request) has been in existence for thousands of years. Israel was created by the UN in 1947 by carving land out of British Palestine. The current ‘leaders’ of Iran have sworn to eliminate Israel on religious grounds and are developing nuclear weapons to do so – they have never had any intention of honouring Obama’s deal and have used it to give themselves time.
And the whoha about the US assisting Israel is mostly just TDS – if Biden was considering it the world would be nodding its head at his wisdom.
yeah the UK had nothing to do with it… lol!
And very good they did.
Slovakia and Czech were also separated. They are not on war.
We can also add Pakistan from India and Bangladesh from Pakistan with wars. Singapore from Malaya also with war- curiosly Singapore existence owes a lot to Israeli support.
But not only. UK created in Palestine Mandate an artificial state given to the tribe ( Hashmites) that was defeated in Arabia civil war against Saud tribe: Jordanian Kingdom.
We could have had instead of Saudi Arabia an Hashim Arabia.
Forgot to say another obvious. Former Yugoslavia countries.
The Iranian regime are probably right to be concerned. Personally I would expect the US to simply ensure there is no way Iran is ever going to have a nuclear weapon. The US military are probably just positioning their assets to achieve that objective. The regime would be wise to simply destroy everything they have which could be used in a weapon now and agree to close down the whole programme.
That said who knows what is going through DT’s mind.
Or the deal signed by Obama could still be in force maybe?
Obama’s deal only kicked the can down the road. He said so himself in 2015, “What is a more relevant fear would be that in year 13, 14, 15, they have advanced centrifuges that can enrich uranium fairly rapidly, and at that time the breakout times would have shrunk almost down to zero.”
The Obama deal was never a long term solution, just a stop gap (he said as much himself). The hope was that regime change would happen organically before the Iranians were in a better position to actually build nukes. Unfortunately that’s not how it has played out.
Political avenues to addressing this have closed.
It’s like watching someone, who has threatened to kill you, start to load a gun and aim it at you. There is a small chance that you could talk them out of it, but there’s not much time to do that. To guarantee your life you’d be better starting a fist fight before they got a loaded gun pointed at you.
KC10s? Thought they had been retired?
There was me thinking the USA didn’t need Europe.
Suddenly all their planes are here.
I suggest they go Eldarado Canyon style and fly straight down the Mediterranean centre line.
Starmer needs to put his foot down or risk being kicked out of office.
No British basing for any operation against Iran.
They never said they didn’t need Europe, just that they could no longer afford to subside our collective defence.
What collective defence? They have two brigades in Europe. Most of their forces in Europe are hear to project power into the Middle East. Their missile defence in Europe is to protect their bases from Iranian missiles.
As you’ll know, they have a significant number of aircraft in Europe also. The missiles will be there to primarily protect their assets, granted. Not sure if it’s been made public that they can also be used for wider air defence.
No, they have seven squadrons in Europe, how can they guard anything with seven squadrons. America guarding Europe remains a MAGA myth. 7 fighter squadrons, two brigades and zero warships. That’s Americans contribution to guarding Europe.
The ENATO has 1.8 million soldiers and 3,312 fighter aircraft in Europe guarding Europe.
The US has 7 squadrons of approximately 20 aircraft in each. Many of those are 5th generation. I can guarantee you they have more available to fly than most European nations do abd they are bettwr armed.
You’re clearly anti all things US.
He is not only is against US, he is completely ignorant of US recon assets, US communications, US logistics, US industry.
Are you mad? Refuse US Forces the use of their own bases here in the UK! One guess the result of that action, the withdrawal of those forces and closure of those bases with all cost both Politically, Military and Financially to the UK. Great plan Mucker.
They are not us bases, they are British bases. You will notice at the start of their names it’s says RAF Lakenheath not USAF Lakenheath.
Allowing the USA to conduct military operations from UK bases is an act of war on the UK’s part.
Diego Garcia may be different as it’s not internationally recognised as UK territory. Pre 2016 the US needed no permission to operate from it as part of the lease. No one seems to know if this changed post 2016 when the lease was updated.
Just as with Gulf war 2 (which JD is now blaming us for not stopping America getting involved in) no one in the USA will be thanking us for facilitating any US operations against Iran.
Now we are between a rock and a hard place.
If the current Iranian regime survives this, they will definitely go for a Nuke.
They should by now realise that their attempted saturation attacks with conventional Ballistic missiles against Israel are mostly ineffective.
Pre 1979 Iran and Israel were allies …. and now this is where religious dogma gets us, it’s stupid.
Why deploy to Lakenheath unless the UK government has agreed to basing long range air assets here such as B2s or B52s in exchange for increased protection- hence the F22s deployed. 12 aircraft is a sizeable chunk of the US F22 fleet which is an elite cadre of barely 135 fighters- they only made small numbers of F22s- hopefully the next US air supremacy fighter the F47- Sabre is going to be built in greater numbers.
The Chinese and Russians know the F22 fleet is lacking in reserves and therefore would go after these aircraft with all they have got to remove them as a menace to their plans.
Attacking Iran for the USA makes a lot of sense now- Israel has degraded the Iranian air force and suppressed their air defences to such an extent they have air superiority over Iran and can attack at will. The ONLY thing they need US support with is bunker busting and hitting their deeply buried nuclear infrastructure or at least the routes into and out of these buried sites. The US could do a full plausible deniability operation and just hit them and say it was Israel- removing the Iranian nuclear threat once and for all- certainly within this generation.
Interestingly Ukraine probably is benefiting from Israel’s actions over Iran as the Iranian regimen was supportive of Russia’s war effort with drones, munitions and missiles. Ditto the Houthis in Yemen- they wont be getting any new ballistic missiles to fire off against shipping and their production of cruise missiles will be curtailed to barely a trickle- all the hardware was coming from Iran and their production sites are now either already destroyed or about to be destroyed by Israeli air force.
Agree with Jim though- this does NOT involve the UK and we should not be joining in the attacks against Iran.
The B2 has an on board toilet and they carry a camp bed. With refueling its two person crew can fly to bomb Iran from the USA. The F22 can’t support them over the same range but can from the UK or other European forward bases.
The US can’t really perform long range bombing missions in the Middle East without the UK’s permission/assistance though. Basing either from the UK, Cyprus or Diego Garcia all need our permission.
That realistically only leaves B2 direct bombing raids from mainland US with very considerable tanker support!
Not sure why the US would need F22s in an operation against Iran. They are air superiority planes and Iran’s aircraft fleet is almost non existent. They can carry ground attack ordnance but lack target designation capability. Given the high cost of maintenance, especially the stealth coating, it seems unlikely they would be used to help Israel intercept missiles.
Lots of American stuff coming in lately. Mostly in the small hours in groups, P&W engines have a distint sound even with the baffles in.
(Wake me in the morning).
Time will tell but I’m not convinced DT has the inner strength to see this through. This is brinkmanship but he’s a money man not a global leader.
DT is only interested in self aggrandisement. He sees Isreal as the clear winner so wants a piece of the action. That way he can sell it to most of his supporters as him ending the Iranian threat. Problem is, unless there is regime change, the West faces an increased medium to long term threat as those Mullahs have a long memory driven l by ideology rather than realism etc. They will return for blood vengeance at some point. Not DTs problem, he will l8kely be out of office by then and blame whoever is in power then. probs an attempt to get a third presidency off the back of that will be on the cards?
The one thing both the US left and right can agree on right now is that they don’t want the US involved in this conflict. He doesn’t need to sell it as he’s term-limited and will remain so thanks to the system required to change it, nor can he (his most vocal supporters are at each others throats over it). His supporters are about 75% against military action and about 85% of the left agree.
The problem is all the politicians of both colours that are repeating “Iran is days away from having nukes” (for I think the third time in a decade or two). It will sway some but unless a carrier sinks or we get instant sunshine at 2am the majority will stay against, but when has a majority of the public being against sandy campaigns ever made a difference.
The USMIC wants Iranian blood and it has for a long time, I’d hoped the likes of Bolton jumping ship to the left (and then finding themselves on the losing side) would delay it some more, as the McCain and Clinton loses did, but it’s increasingly looking not to be the case.