When you move F-22s, you’re not posturing. You’re loading the rifle.
The U.S. Air Force has surged F-22 Raptors and a growing armada of aerial refueling tankers toward Israel as the White House weighs whether to take the gloves off against Iran. This isn’t routine rotation. This is positioning for a fight.
Eleven Raptors are now sitting at Ovda Airbase in southern Israel, according to commercial satellite imagery. More passed through RAF Lakenheath in England — the old, familiar gas-and-go waypoint for fighters headed into the Middle East.
Raptors don’t deploy for flag-waving. They deploy to own the sky.
These are the same stealth thoroughbreds that escorted B-2 bombers during last year’s Operation Midnight Hammer — the strike package that punched three Iranian nuclear facilities in the mouth. When the Air Force wants air dominance from the first minute of the first day, it sends the F-22.
Meanwhile, the buildup doesn’t stop there.
Twelve F-35As from Hill Air Force Base hit Lakenheath on Feb. 26. The same day, a dozen F-15E Strike Eagles lifted off from Seymour-Johnson and staged through the UK. Spotters tracked them. Controllers logged them. This isn’t rumor. It’s metal in motion.
U.S. Central Command isn’t talking. That’s standard. When the jets are moving, the microphones go quiet.
Tankers Tell the Real Story
Here’s the tell: tankers.
Within hours between Feb. 26 and 27, at least eight KC-46 Pegasus tankers landed at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. That’s a civilian airport. You don’t stack tankers at a commercial hub in a tense region unless you’re building sustained strike capacity.
More KC-135 Stratotankers have shifted into Europe and the Middle East in recent weeks. Tankers are the oxygen of air campaigns. No fuel, no fight. With fuel? You can reach deep.
And deep is the point.
Ovda: Built for War
Ovda isn’t some temporary strip. It’s a hardened 1980s base with shelters, ammunition storage, and capacity for more than 100 aircraft, including tankers. The Americans have used it during joint exercises with Israel. It’s built to surge.
And surge they have.
Beyond the Raptors and fresh arrivals, around 30 Air Force F-35As from Lakenheath’s 48th Fighter Wing and Vermont’s 158th Fighter Wing are already deployed to a base outside Israel. A squadron of F-15Es from Seymour-Johnson is in theater, along with Lakenheath’s own Strike Eagles. Add in F-16s and A-10s, and the sky is getting crowded.
Out in the Indian Ocean, Diego Garcia — the old Cold War anvil — is again humming. F-16s and other aircraft are deployed there. Last year, F-15Es guarded the island while B-2s and B-52s staged for strikes against Houthi targets during Operation Rough Rider.
History repeats. The pieces move. The map stays the same.
Carriers Close the Ring
At sea, the noose tightens.
The USS Gerald R. Ford, now off of Israel’s coast, brings F/A-18 Super Hornets and EA-18 electronic attack aircraft. South of Iran, the USS Abraham Lincoln is already on station with F-35Cs and more strike fighters.
Both carrier strike groups include warships equipped to swat down ballistic missiles and fire Tomahawk cruise missiles back the other way.
That’s layered deterrence. Or layered preparation.
Diplomacy on Life Support
While the hardware stacks up, negotiators met in Geneva on Feb. 26 over Iran’s nuclear program. They remain miles apart. Washington wants permanent cessation of uranium enrichment and constraints on ballistic missiles. Tehran wants room to maneuver.
Oman says technical talks will continue in Vienna next week. Fine. Talk is cheap.
Metal isn’t.
Right now, Iran isn’t enriching uranium, following the damage inflicted during Operation Midnight Hammer. But the White House wants that suspension locked in permanently. If not? The flight lines are ready.
This isn’t saber-rattling. It’s pre-positioning.
When Raptors deploy forward, tankers flood civilian airports, and two carrier strike groups close in, it’s not theater.
It’s a message written in afterburner and JP-8.
And Tehran understands that language.
