US Army Cargo Flights Land at Israel's Nevatim and Ovda

US Army cargo aircraft flying out of Fort Bliss in Texas have landed at Israeli air bases in the Negev. Fort Bliss is the Army's main center for air and missile defense. The flights arrived as talks between Washington and Tehran stall and as US officials say plans for strikes on Iran are ready from as early as Wednesday.

Open-source intelligence trackers reported that the flights stopped at Ramstein Air Base in Germany before landing at Nevatim and Ovda, two Israeli Air Force bases in the south of the country. The trackers said the shipments are intended to reinforce Israel's air defenses and appear to involve THAAD systems.

The Jerusalem Post reported that FlightRadar24 data showed several cargo planes from Fort Bliss arriving at bases in Israel. Other aircraft from the same base had already landed in the country over the preceding days. Fort Bliss, in El Paso, handles air- and missile-defense command, training and operations. The base also stores missile interceptors and air-defense systems.

The airlift comes as diplomacy falters. Two regional sources described the US-Iran negotiations as stuck. Mediators including Qatar, Russia and China had spent recent days trying to secure a breakthrough that could head off an American military strike.

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, recently received a letter from US Vice President JD Vance. On Tuesday he rejected Washington's reply in a post on X.

"The United States' response regarding Iran's rights and demands was not convincing," Rezaei wrote.

Rezaei insisted that Washington give a full and explicit answer to Iran's seven conditions. Only then, he said, would "the Strait of Hormuz be opened." Tehran's demands include:

a complete end to the war, including in Gaza and Lebanon
the comprehensive lifting of all sanctions
the return of Iran's frozen assets
compensation for war damages
international guarantees against future attacks
recognition of Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz

The US military buildup extends beyond the cargo flights. The USS Theodore Roosevelt and its strike group were tracked near the Strait of Malacca and are expected to enter the area of US Central Command (CENTCOM) by next week. That could bring the number of American aircraft carriers in the Middle East to three, a presence not seen during previous operations.

US officials told The New York Times that CENTCOM had prepared plans to strike Iran as early as Wednesday, after the US midterm elections. "The decision on whether to carry out the strike rests with the US president," the officials said.

The reinforcements arrive after months of heavy use of American interceptor stocks. As reported in September, CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper dismissed concerns over depleted air-defense stockpiles. He was responding to assessments that the US had expended roughly 45% of its Patriot missiles and more than half of its THAAD inventory. "I'm not concerned at all," Cooper said at the time.