Brett Wilkins Jun 16, 2025
Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.
Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israelcalled an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.
Armchair theory is that the US large platform bombers will be used to credibly threaten repeated bunker buster hits on Fordow nuclear site. This could pressure Iran to surrender its entire nuclear program including that site.
Currently Israel doesn’t have the capability by itself to destroy the site but US bombers possibly could.
That doesn’t make a lick of sense. To use an analogy, that would be like eating lunch with me and I say “I’m going to take your apple,” so you’re response is to give me your whole lunch, including the apple.
I mean, it’s actually much worse than that, because in this case losing your lunch means losing your best chance to defend yourself and opening yourself to future attacks, maybe on breakfast and dinner.