The U.S. military expanded its logistics footprint in the Middle East throughout October, using heavy transport aircraft to move troops, weapons and equipment into the region. Data from Hunterbrook shows that between Sept 29 and Oct 29, the U.S. Air Force conducted roughly 2,000 transport and tanker flights, tracking the missions through flight data and approximately 94,000 ACARS satellite messages to account for jets that fell off standard coverage.
This regional buildup comes as the military redistributes its refueling assets, including Oct 30 movements of three tankers from the Al Udeid facility in Qatar to Israel and Saudi Arabia. While some analysts say the shifting of more than 25 tankers away from Al Udeid indicates preparations for an imminent strike on Iran, satellite images from Oct 30 showed 28 aircraft still remained at the Qatar base.