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The Israeli press is hyperventilating, as usual, claiming once again that a US attack is immanent. They have been making the same claim repeatedly for several weeks.

In real life, it's unlikely that President Trump will order it before the State of the Union speech next Tuesday. Not before next weekend probably. They will want the USS Gerald Ford carrier battle group to get into position. It's currently in the western Mediterranean. While it might be approaching the Israeli coast in a day or two, it will take longer to pass through Suez, the Red Sea and make its way to the Gulf of Oman area. That might take a week or so.

It might be longer, if the Pentagon thinks there's more preparation to do, or if Trump thinks that negotiations are getting somewhere.

The Chinese are popping their popcorn and are in position to enjoy the spectacle, whenever it happens. A Chinese "research vessel" (during the Cold War we called them "spy ships") called the Hai Yang Shi You 285 has taken up a more or less stationary position in the Persian Gulf between Qatar and Iran. It's believed that it will be recording US aircraft and tactics.

I should add that there's talk that a lot of chartered civilian cargo aircraft and maybe some airliners as well are also flying. There are no numbers on it, but that's the talk. Companies like Kalitta and Atlas were mentioned and have large cargo aircraft like 747's. There was speculation (very much unconfirmed) that special operations soldiers might be flying on the airliners.

Gulf war veterans are saying that they were flown into the area on chartered commercial airliners and that most soldiers back then were. There's speculation (simply speculation) that if the US ends up going big, special forces might occupy Iranian nuclear sites for a few days to make sure they are destroyed and to collect whatever intelligence they can gather. They would need a security perimeter etc.

The USS Gerald Ford has arrived at the Souda Bay naval base in Greece, where it's expected to remain for a couple of days while it is resupplied and its sailors get the last rest and shore leave opportunity that they might get in perhaps some time.

(Feb 22, 2026 03:26 AM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]12 F-22's have arrived at RAF Lakenheath after they tried to fly there a day or two ago but had to turn back to Langley AFB in the US due to some sort of technical fault with an aerial refueling tanker. They switched out the tanker and these exceedingly advanced stealth fighters are now in England. Given that Keir Starmer has said that the Americans can't launch attacks on Iran from British bases, these jets are expected to be moving on to other bases soon. The US seems to be freely using Britain as a staging area though, so Starmer appears to be trying to have it both ways.

The F-22's have indeed moved on. All 12 left RAF Lakenheath this morning, but one had to turn back for technical reasons. The other 11 landed at Israel's Ovda airbase in the far southern Negev desert. The 12th is expected to fly there in a day or two after it gets some maintenance.

There are also indications that six additional F-22's accompanied by their refueling aircraft left Langley Air Force Base in VA this morning headed towards Lakenheath in England.

People on the internet are commenting that the F-22's don't typically move to forward locations like Ovda until just a few days before action, so there's speculation that something might be happening this coming weekend.

F-22 at Ovda

(Feb 25, 2026 12:17 AM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]There are also indications that six additional F-22's accompanied by their refueling aircraft left Langley Air Force Base in VA this morning headed towards Lakenheath in England.

And the British plane-spotters were out for their arrival. One livestreamed it as it happened.

Scroll ahead to about the 17 minute mark when the first of these six ultra-advanced jets make their appearance in groups of two. Little except their landing lights is visible since they arrived in the dead of night, Britain time.

RAF Lakenheath is getting a workout...

After the eleven F-22's left for Ovda Israel a couple of days ago (and the 12th straggled behind them yesterday or today), and after the six additional F-22's arrived from Langley air force base in Virginia last night, an additional 12 F-35A's flew in from Hill air force base in Utah today along with 12 F-15E's from Mountain Home air force base in Idaho. That's 30 fighter plane arrivals in just the last 24 hours.

Neighboring RAF Mildenhall only about 8 miles away hasn't been forgotten. It is handling the aerial refueling aircraft and many of the cargo planes flying back and forth in an air-bridge between North America and Europe.

While Keir Starmer has forbidden the US from launching air strikes on Iran from bases in Britain, Britain is obviously serving as a major staging area in preparation for whatever air strikes follow in coming days. Starmer seems to think that Britain can avoid Iranian retaliation that way.

(Feb 27, 2026 04:55 AM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]

Sadly, ignorant leftists probably believe that.

Trump lies again!

"'WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran will soon have a missile that can hit the United States is not backed by U.S. intelligence reports, and appears to be exaggerated, according to three sources familiar with the reports, casting doubt on part of his case for a possible attack on the Islamic Republic.

In his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump began making his case to the American public for why the U.S. could launch strikes against Iran, saying Tehran was “working on missiles that will soon reach” the United States.

But there have been no changes, two sources said, to an unclassified 2025 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that Iran could take until 2035 to develop a "militarily viable intercontinental ballistic missile" (ICBM) from its existing satellite-lofting space-launch vehicles (SLV).

“President Trump is absolutely right to highlight the grave concern posed by Iran, a country that chants ‘death to America,’ possessing intercontinental ballistic missiles," said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.

One source said that even if China or North Korea - which closely cooperate with Iran - provided technological assistance, Iran would probably take up to eight years at the earliest to produce "something that is actually ICBM level and operational...."--- https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospa...026-02-27/

Today there reportedly are ten F-15E's inbound to Lakenheath from Seymour Johnson air force base in North Carolina.

And the latest count has 333 transport flights from the US, Europe and Asia into the Middle East as of today! These have largely been C-17's and C-5's.

A few weeks ago people were saying that the US didn't have enough forces in the area for an attack on Iran to be credible... well, can't say that any longer. We haven't seen this kind of buildup since the second Gulf War in 2003.

It's even more formidable if we add Israel to it.