US buildup near Iran now larger than June 2025 amid talks in Muscat
India Today
At least three E-11A, three Osprey supply aircraft, a dozen F-15 fighter jets, an MQ-9 Reaper combat drone and several A-10C Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft tracked by India Today show better military preparedness than the US strike in June 2025.
Whether or not the United States strikes Iran may be signalled by the scale of its armada in the Arabian Sea. Last June's operation "Midnight Hammer" targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities but weeks before the strikes there were already echoes in the sea.
Open-source defence analyst Stefan Watkins has tracked the arrival of multiple US early-warning and spy aircraft in the region in recent weeks, including at least three E-11A battlefield airborne communications nodes(BACN) now positioned at Al-Kharj Air Base in Saudi Arabia. During the June 2025 strikes, by contrast, only a single E-11A was observed operating in the Middle East.
Watkins noted in a post on X that this pattern “might suggest that strikes are coming sooner rather than later.”
India Today’s Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) team has independently tracked and mapped six E-11A BACN aircraft either postured in the Middle East or operating in rotation. The deployments mark a significant increase in US command-and-control assets in the Gulf, coinciding with the arrival of a US carrier strike group as President Donald Trump intensifies pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme and its violent crackdown on protests in January.
This comes as US and Iranian officials are set to meet in Muscat today for their first face-to-face negotiations since the strike last June in an attempt to stave off another conflict. Meanwhile, the United States has asked its citizens to leave the west asian country immediately without any help from the US embassy.
There are also signs of increased activity at other US bases across the Middle East this week. The Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in eastern Jordan appears to be acting as a central node for the US buildup. Satellite imagery reviewed by India Today via Copernicus shows about a dozen jets lined up on the tarmac in late January, in the same spot seen at the base in June last year, ahead of Operation Midnight Hammer.
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At least three E-11A, three Osprey supply aircraft, a dozen F-15 fighter jets, an MQ-9 Reaper combat drone and several A-10C Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft tracked by India Today show better military preparedness than the US strike in June 2025.