Overview
- Commercial imagery from MizarVision and Planet Labs shows 11 F-22 Raptors parked at Ovda Air Base, with a Patriot air-defense battery visible nearby.
- The jets departed RAF Lakenheath with aerial refuelers; observers reported one fighter returned to the UK for a technical issue, and tankers flew with transponders active while the F-22s did not.
- U.S. movements form part of a wider surge that has shifted well over 100 aircraft into the region, alongside the USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Abraham Lincoln carrier groups operating near the eastern Mediterranean and Arabian Sea.
- Israeli and U.S. reports describe a fully supported operational presence at Ovda, with tankers, cargo aircraft, and hundreds of maintenance and munitions personnel arriving to sustain the squadron.
- Multiple outlets characterize the basing of U.S. combat F-22s in Israel as a first, with the posture presented as deterrence as President Trump keeps military options on the table during ongoing negotiations.