Amid the brewing tensions in West Asia, the US military has reportedly begun moving another six F-22 stealth fighter jets toward the region.
Amid the brewing tensions in
West Asia, the
US military has reportedly begun moving another six F-22 stealth fighter jets toward the region. Analysts monitoring open-source flight tracking data told The Times of Israel that the six F-22s are expected to be deployed at an Israeli Air Force base.
The manoeuvring is coming at a time when the United States and Iran are set to commence critical talks on the latter’s nuclear programme. It is pertinent to note that 11
F-22 stealth fighter jets already landed at the Israeli airbase yesterday. According to flight tracking data, the six F-22s took off from the United States on Wednesday and linked up with their accompanying refueler planes.
Langley F-22s Cell 2 crossing underway #FreeIran
— “Operation LION & SUN” —In a mirror of yesterday’s movement of 6x F-22A “Raptor” jets, another 6 are airborne and linking up with tankers for the crossing to RAF Lakenheath. 3 tankers will take them part way, and then 2… pic.twitter.com/FFxwfzaojb
— DefenceGeek 🇬🇧 (@DefenceGeek) February 25, 2026
As per the report, they are currently en route to the Royal Air Force Lakenheath airbase in England. On Tuesday, 12 F-22s that were stationed at RAF Lakenheath took off for Israel. However, one of the jets returned to the airbase due to a technical issue. The rest of the 11 fighter jets are now deployed at an air base in southern Israel, an Israeli defence official told The Times of Israel.
It is important to note that the
F-22s are operated exclusively by the US Air Force and are known to be the world’s most advanced air-superiority fighter. They are built for unmatched speed, manoeuvrability, and stealth in air-to-air combat. The movement of the jets is coming at a time when US President Donald Trump is considering whether to take military action against Iran.
Dozens of fighter jets — including F-35s, F-22s, F-15s and F-16s — have been spotted heading to West Asia by the Military Air Tracking Alliance, a team of about 30 open-source analysts that routinely analyses military and government flight activity in recent days.
Iran-US enters critical talks
Meanwhile, Tehran is entering
critical talks on its nuclear programme with the US on Thursday. Iran insists a deal is in reach as long as Washington sticks by its willingness to concede to the West Asian nation’s symbolic right to enrich uranium, allow Tehran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and not impose controls on Iran’s ballistic missile programme.
The Iranian diplomats are considering these three preconditions critical for the success of the talks, but it remains unclear if Trump accepts these conditions. On Wednesday, US Secretary of State
Marco Rubio said that it would be a “big problem” if Iran did not negotiate over missiles.
The US special envoy
Steve Witkoff, who is heading to Geneva for the talks along with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, had already accepted these principles in the two previous rounds of indirect talks, Iranian officials claim. However, there is still a possibility that Trump could overturn these terms. If this happens, failed talks would inevitably lead to a conflict between the two nations that could rapidly consume the whole of West Asia. Hence, there is a lot at stake as the two nations sit down to discuss the highly contentious issue.
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