A fleet of twelve American F-22 Raptor fighter jets, valued at over $4 billion, has touched down at an Israeli Air Force base, part of a significant escalation of US military presence in the Middle East.
These aircraft, renowned for their unmatched speed and stealth capabilities, arrived in Israel on Tuesday evening, as reported by the Jerusalem Post, amid escalating tensions with Iran.
Crafted by Lockheed Martin, each F-22 comes with a hefty price tag of approximately $350 million. Their importance to the United States is underscored by the Pentagon’s strict ban on selling or licensing them to any foreign nation.
The jets were previously stationed at RAF Lakenheath in southern England, with reports from the Times of Israel noting their departure earlier that Tuesday.
One of the aircraft encountered a technical issue, requiring it to return to base before successfully taking off again later in the day.
F-22 and F-35 fighters, alongside B-2 bombers, were instrumental in the June 2025 Operation Midnight Hammer, during which the US targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities.
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.”
