A dozen American F-22 Raptor fighter jets, representing more than $4 billion of military spending, have arrived at an Israeli Air Force base amid a massive buildup of US military hardware in the Middle East.
The planes, widely considered the best in the world due to their speed and stealth, arrived in the Jewish state Tuesday evening as tensions with Iran soar, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Designed by Lockheed Martin, the F-22s cost around $350 million each, and are so vital to the US that the Pentagon has forbidden their sale or license to any foreign government.
The dozen jets were previously stationed at the RAF Lakenheath base in southern England and were seen taking off earlier on Tuesday, the Times of Israel reported.
One was reportedly forced to return to the base due to a technical issue before taking off again later in the day.
F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, along with B-2 bombers, were used in June 2025’s Operation Midnight Hammer, in which the US struck three Iranian nuclear sites.
More than 300 US military aircraft are currently deployed across the Middle East, according to open-source intelligence monitoring and publicly available flight data.
The jets arrived just days after the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, arrived on Israel’s coast ahead of Thursday’s scheduled nuclear talks between the US and Iran in Geneva, Switzerland.
President Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran if the talks fail, while the Islamic regime has vowed to strike Israeli and US targets in the Middle East in response.
In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Trump branded the Iranian regime “the world’s number one sponsor of terror,” and ordered Tehran to end its nuclear program.
“We are in negotiations with [Iran], they want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those sacred words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,’” Trump said.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” he added.
“Can’t let that happen.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
