#USAF United States Air Force - Middle East Activity
27 February - Tanker/Airlift Summary

There have now been at least 333 C-17 and C-5 flights from U.S. Military bases in Asia, CONUS and Europe to the Middle East since 15 January. There are a further 5 pending Army-related flights, and 9 Air Force-related flights.

I've observed now a number of flights heading into the Middle East that aren't tracking on ADS-B/Flight Radar. As I've stated before, I don't include these on my list until their location is already public knowledge.

The flights are currently from a wide variety of origin bases, unlike earlier in the build up where we saw days of flights from a single base.

There are many whose ACARS messages originate from places such as Dover, Charleston and Bangor which leads me to believe they are masking their original location and not initialising on ACARS until they reach their first stop on their flight. This would be to prevent us seeing where they came from.

The flow of flights, if anything, is only increasing. This ADS-B Exchange screenshot is truly incredible.

A USAF C-5M Galaxy was just forced to divert to Incirlik Air Base due to crew fatigue.

USAF aircrews have been breaking crew rest minimums as the US surges equipment and aircraft into the Middle East in preparation for an Iran strike.

I’ve been a big critic of Trump this past year, but this may be the best and most competent I’ve seen him.

TABOR 61, 71 and 25 all active on the ground at RAF Lakenheath.

GOLD 04 on Coronet East 045 on engine start at Mildenhall.

The British military confirms that a small drone has impacted the airfield at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. No casualties and only minor damage.

However, per alert the "incident is ongoing"

Local media politis reports

Nicosia FIR - 2 March, 1216z

A single RAF Voyager supporting multiple Typhoons patrolling the area for further threats to RAF Akrotiri.

Another video of US Air Force B-2A Spirits as PETRO41-44 touching down at Dyess AFB, TX after a mission that began yesterday to bomb Iran.

US Air Force B-2A Spirit long range strategic bombers from Whiteman AFB, MO have just touched down at Dyess AFB, TX after diverting following their mission over Iran due to weather at Whiteman.

We have agreed to quadruple critical munitions production. As a result of President @realDonaldTrump's leadership, we began this work months ago with @SecWar Hegseth and Deputy Secretary Feinberg.

U.S. officials tell CBS News that a total of three MQ-9 “Reaper” Surveillance and Attack Drones with the U.S. Air Force have been downed so far during Operation Epic Fury. It's not clear where exactly the three drones crashed, but one of the Reapers attempted to crash off the coast of Iran, while another is believed to have been shot down during a “friendly fire” incident by Qatar.

BREAKING: HMS Dragon’s preparations for Cyprus ‘severely delayed’ by last May’s Labour Government decision to axe dockyard costs, chopping Portsmouth down from 24 hour 7 day working to 9-to-5 Monday to Friday (via ⁦@PoliticoEurope⁩)

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-cut-staff-hours-key-naval-base-responding-cyprus-drone-strike/