BREAKING: U.S. F-22 Raptors Reportedly Headed to Ovda Airbase in Israel
11 USAF F-22 Raptors (TREND51-64) are en route to Israel’s Ovda Airbase following a stopover in the UK. Supported by KC-46 and KC-135 tankers, this 1st Fighter Wing deployment signals a major U.S. airpower surge in the Middle East.
A squadron of U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters has departed RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom and is en route to Ovda (Uvda) Airbase in southern Israel, according to real-time aviation tracking and open-source intelligence (OSINT) reports.
Aviation monitors including @EISNspotter and @MenchOsint report that the advanced fifth-generation jets - callsigns TREND51 (x3), TREND54 (x3), TREND61 (x3), and TREND64 (x3) -are supported by multiple KC-46 and KC-135 tankers (ROMA02/03, ROMA04/05, ROMA12/13, ROMA14/15).
One aircraft was forced to return to the UK due to a fuel leak, leaving 11 F-22s continuing to Ovda.
This would mark the first time U.S. F-22 Raptors have deployed directly to an Israeli airbase in a combat posture (as opposed to joint exercises at other locations).
Ovda Airbase, located in the Negev Desert near Eilat, hosts multinational drills such as Blue Flag and features hardened shelters, long runways, and infrastructure fully compatible with American stealth.
The jets belong to the elite 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. They staged at RAF Lakenheath earlier this month as part of a major U.S. airpower surge into the Middle East amid escalating tensions with Iran and its regional proxies.
No official statements have been released yet by U.S. CENTCOM or the IDF, which is standard procedure for sensitive transits tracked publicly via ADS-B, Mode-S, and radio communications.
This is a developing story.