Brett Wilkins Jun 16, 2025

Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.

Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israelcalled an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    21 hours ago

    Yeah, it seems fairly impossible he’ll get fully into the war, and even lending a few bunker busters would be surprising when that’s risking a blowback on American forces.

    I would guess that Trump is expecting Khamenei to cave, because that’s what he’d do. Most likely, he won’t, Trump will be confused, and this will drag on and on until a regional nuclear exchange is on the table.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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      13 hours ago

      it works in russias favor since its redirecting some resources from the ukrainian front, its not a coindence that this is occuring at the same time russia was having larger losses.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 hours ago

        What do you mean? Israel is doing Russia a solid for some reason?

        Also, nothing has been redirected yet. It takes a while for stuff to move through the military supply chain and into the hands of Ukrainian forces, or Israeli ones, and even then you’d need the US to pass different funding legislation.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        14 hours ago

        Iran or Iran’s splinter states. They have several bombs worth of uranium that’s almost ready.

        I doubt the US would get involved, and nobody else is going to for sure.

        • ansiz@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          That’s the same talking point we’ve heard for decades but even US intelligence reports have said the opposite, even earlier this year. I’m sure they could create dirty bombs but that only requires nuclear power plant waste.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            2 hours ago

            No, we’ve heard they have some kinda enriched stuff, some centrifuges and could maybe someday have a bomb for decades. It’s a bit less theoretical now, they’ve been gradually enriching more and more since the US broke off the agreement:

            In February 2023, the IAEA reported having found uranium in Iran enriched to 84%. The Iranian government has claimed that this is an “unintended fluctuation” in the enrichment levels, though the Iranians have been openly enriching uranium to 60% purity, a breach of the 2015 nuclear deal. In 2024, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed interest in reopening discussions with the United States on the nuclear deal.

            They have a significant amount, too, and if I were them I would be hiding it carefully in non-obvious places where it can’t be buried by an airstrike.

      • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        Hasn’t Iran been talking about ramping up nuclear weapons production since like the end of last year? I don’t think they’re actually a nuclear capable nation but I could see them posturing like they are

        • ansiz@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Posturing is what Iran does. They’ve done that at least since the early 90s. But US intelligence services have repeatedly come to the conclusion that Iran is not ramping up production, at least based on the briefs even from a few months ago earlier this year.