USAF tanker night mission over Iraq

An interesting overnight sortie involved a USAF Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker (reg. 61-0313). The aircraft departed Prince Sultan Air Base, south of Riyadh, at roughly 02:00 CEST and headed north, entering Iraqi airspace around 03:00 CEST. Its ADS-B signal then went dark for about five-and-a-half hours, reappearing at 08:39 CEST as the tanker was once again over southern Saudi Arabia on a southbound track. It touched down back at Prince Sultan AB at approximately 09:30 CEST.

The flight was clearly an aerial-refuelling mission, but the receivers remain unidentified. One possibility is that the KC-135R supported USAF fighters on combat-air-patrol duties over Iraq after Iran’s missile launches toward Israel. It’s worth noting that in a previous Israeli raid against Houthi targets in Yemen, USAF tankers also topped off Israeli jets—so a similar pattern of cooperation cannot be ruled out here.