Hinting that a US attack on Iran is imminent, Israeli media reports say that over 12 American F-22 fighter jets landed at an air force base in southern Israel on Tuesday. The impressive deployment is part of a broad regional deployment by the US in the Middle East, amid growing tensions with Iran.
The F-22 Raptors are the most advanced stealth aircraft in the world, used exclusively by the US Air Force, and designed to neutralise defence systems and radars deep inside enemy territory. They would probably be the first fighter jets to cross into Iranian territory if a war breaks out.
Israeli media thinks the American choice to place its "strategic assets" specifically in the country is not accidental. It relies on the proven capabilities of Israeli air defence systems and the operational experience gained in recent campaigns. The presence of the aircraft sends a message of clear deterrence and readiness for any offensive or defensive scenario.
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Meanwhile, NATO is on a high alert over the possibility of an impending war, shifting its air surveillance system from Russia to Iran. While NATO has regularly used advanced AWACS aircraft based in Turkey to monitor Russia and Iran, it has now increased the number of flights taking place from the city of Konya in the Central Anatolian region to monitor Iran.
Turkey, too, is preparing for the war and is anticipating a huge wave of refugees, especially Afghan and Pakistani citizens living in Iran, to the country. This would put additional pressure on its vulnerable economy. Turkey currently hosts about three million Syrian refugees.
Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that Ankara has reviewed and updated its contingency plans for a scenario of mass displacement of civilians in the event of a major conflict. These scenarios include setting up camps in border areas and even entering Iranian territory to prevent refugees from crossing into Turkey.
As per reports, the US military has deployed over 150 aircraft to bases in Europe and the Middle East. The publicly available flight tracking data and satellite imagery reviewed by The Washington Post revealed that the deployment surpassed the military buildup seen before the June 2025 attack on Israel.
The report added that dozens of additional planes are aboard the warship USS Gerald R. Ford, which has been docked off the coast of the Greek island of Crete on Monday. Another US carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, is already in the Middle East and Ford’s arrival means that roughly a third of all active U.S. ships are now in the region.
Interestingly, half of the newly deployed U.S. aircraft are in European bases, and this denotes strategic placement of the planes out of range of most Iranian missiles .
There is still no clear idea about whether the combat aircraft, as the vast majority of the planes that appear in flight-tracking data are cargo and refuelling planes.
