The Morón air base, in Seville, was closed on Sunday due to an accident involving a U.S. C-17 transport plane that is part of the massive military deployment with which Washington is surrounding Iran.
It is impossible to know if these movements are part of the military maneuvers that the United States has launched in the Middle East, force rotations, or the prelude to a new intervention in Iran. But the operation resembles in complexity the one that took place last June when the United States intervened on the side of Israel in the bombing of that country against the Iranian nuclear program, in what has been called the 12-day War. On that occasion, Spain was almost the gas station for the United States in the war.
Like back then, the operation is unfeasible without the U.S. bases in Spain and Europe, a continent that the Trump administration tends to routinely insult for its alleged lack of support to Washington. And that's where Spain plays a crucial role. This leads to the Sunday accident, which will keep Morón closed until next Friday and has caused air traffic destined for the Middle East to be diverted to the Rota naval base. This is what internal communications from the U.S. Air Force, leaked on social media, indicate, in what seems to be a discipline failure since no classified information has been disclosed.
According to these sources, the accident occurred because one of the four engines of a C-17 transport plane failed during takeoff. The plane had to abort the operation, and in the process, eight of its fourteen tires burst. The aircraft ended up blocking the runway on Sunday, with no injuries reported in the incident. The C-17 measures just over 50 meters and can carry up to 77.5 tons of cargo. On Friday, three KC-135 tanker aircraft had departed from Morón to the Al Udeid base in Qatar, facing Iran.
The temporary closure of Morón has left at least one KC-46 tanker aircraft, which refuels other aircraft in flight, and several EA-18 aircraft, specialized in interfering with and destroying radars and electronic warfare installations, stranded at the base. At the same time, Rota airport has seen a significant increase in activity due to the diversion of aircraft to that facility, where in recent days, several F-22 and F-35, the two most modern combat aircraft in the U.S. inventory, have flown towards the Middle East.
More KC-46 and EA-18 aircraft have also arrived at Rota. The latter, specialized in destroying anti-aircraft defenses to pave the way for ground attack aircraft, fly from Puerto Rico, where they had been deployed in December as part of Operation Southern Arrow, which culminated in the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro on January 3.
Also from Operation Southern Arrow are the F-35 aircraft that have been seen at the U.S. base in Lajes, in the Portuguese-owned Azores archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, which is often used as a stopover for U.S. military aircraft flights to Europe and the Middle East.
An E-11A, specialized in coordinating complex aerial operations involving different types of aircraft (missiles, drones, and aircraft with various specifications and missions), has also crossed Spain - from Asturias to Barcelona.
Other European countries have also witnessed more or less unusual visits from U.S. combat platforms. One of the most significant is the arrival of a WC-135 at Mildenhall base in the United Kingdom, a much more specialized aircraft than the E-11A or the EA-18. The United States only has 10 units of this aircraft, whose mission is to detect nuclear radiation. Its presence in Mildenhall has sparked speculation about whether Donald Trump plans to use it either to try to detect radiation that could come from Iran's nuclear program to decide whether to attack certain facilities, or - and this seems more likely - to determine if, after a bombing, radioactive emissions have occurred.
These movements are just part of the U.S. troop deployments to the Middle East, including the well-publicized presence of the nuclear aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East. Additionally, Washington has positioned at least eight destroyers in the region capable of launching both cruise missiles and anti-missiles to protect its forces and those of Israel, which would be a target for Tehran's retaliation in case of an attack, as well as units specialized in transportation, refueling, and even rescuing crews of downed aircraft in hostile territory.
The Pentagon has also sent several THAAD missile defense batteries to the Middle East to defend Israel from Iranian attacks in June. On that occasion, the United States claimed to have launched 230 anti-aircraft missiles to protect Israel from Iranian missiles and another 30 to defend Al Udeid. Additionally, on June 22, Washington launched 75 bombs and missiles against Iranian nuclear facilities.