Flight trackers have spotted a fleet of US air tankers crossing the Atlantic just as Donald Trump prepares to meet with generals and admirals on Tuesday.
Around a dozen KC-135R/T Stratotankers were making the journey on Sunday night, with several en route to RAF Mildenhall – a major Air Force base in England, open-source intelligence (OSINT) accounts reported on X.
The presence of air tankers can indicate that the US or Nato is addressing an urgent military requirement for fighter jet refueling capacity.
The deployment carries ominous weight, according to three Defense Department sources – two former, one current – who spoke to the Daily Mail on condition of anonymity.
The last time the US moved tankers in comparable numbers was five days before American warplanes struck Iran‘s nuclear facilities. Trump is meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
The movement of the Stratotankers comes as Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are preparing to hold a shadowy meeting of the nation’s top military leaders at Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday.
The unprecedented meeting, first reported by the Washington Post last week, has raised alarm. Hundreds of generals and admirals, including those in active conflict zones, have been summoned from around the world – with no details of what will be discussed at the summit.
Behnam Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, tells the Daily Mail, while ‘correlation is not causation’, he can’t help but think of the last time there was a mass tanker deployment by the United States.
Hellbound and Down 