Iran just named the U.S. aircraft it fears most.The Jets Iran fears most is not the F-35 or the F-15E Strike Eagle. It is the tanker that keeps them airborne. In the last 24 hours the head of Iran’s armed forces warned Gulf states that hosting American aerial refueling aircraft counts as joining the war, and the Financial Times reported that Iranian planners have assessed striking U.S. targets in Europe — naming Bezmer air base in Bulgaria, cleared last month for up to eight KC-135 tankers by a 136-13 parliamentary vote. Meanwhile Washington opened what the President called “ECONOMIC D-DAY,” the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country, targeting oil smuggling, swap lines, exchange houses, ship registries and front companies. We break down the F-35A and F-15E combat radius numbers, why stealth makes the F-35 more tanker-dependent than any fighter in the fleet, what the KC-135 actually does, and why NATO’s four intercepts of Iranian ballistic missiles are the receipt Tehran cannot argue with. We also break down every tanker in the American fleet — KC-135, KC-46A Pegasus, the retired KC-10 Extender, the Marine KC-130J and the Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray. Plus: Israeli intelligence publishes its Nasser Hospital investigation, and Ukraine confirms a spymaster as defense minister.
