At least 28 powerful U.S. Air Force tankers—including KC-135R Stratotankers and KC-46 Pegasus jets—were seen crossing the Atlantic en masse Sunday night, according to Daily Mail citing open-source aircraft tracking platforms.
The fleet’s mysterious deployment comes as tensions between Israel and the terrorist regime in Iran spiral dangerously toward all-out war.
The massive airborne refueling convoy appears to have launched from multiple air bases across the continental United States, heading toward Europe.
According to military aviation outlet The War Zone (TWZ), this kind of large-scale tanker deployment is “very peculiar” and not tied to any routine exercises.
28 now. pic.twitter.com/STV6EWCt0q
— Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555) June 16, 2025
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Open-source enthusiasts took to social media after all the tankers began popping up on flight tracking software.
At its peak, it appeared that at least 28 tankers were all heading east. While there is a multinational exercise in Norway that is about to kick off, that wouldn’t require anything like this level of relocation of refueling assets.
There is no other apparent exercise or commitment that would necessitate such an operation.
On the other hand, these are precisely the assets that would be needed if the United States were going to change its support of Israel’s Operation Rising Lion, or if there were urgent concerns that the conflict is about to widen significantly.
Outside of some sort of unlikely signalling move, an undisclosed massive exercise, or some other yet-to-be-known long-established commitment, there are four possible explanations for the movements in the context of the Iran-Israel war.
Keep in mind that some of these possibilities could be pre-decisional. In other words, the movement of assets could be happening now so that a wide array of contingencies are prepared for and executable options are available very quickly if need be.
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