US Air Force bombers capable of hitting enemies with up to 34 tonnes of explosives are on their way to the UK amid speculation President Donald Trump is about to launch a ‘mega attack’ on Iran.
A fleet of B-1 aircraft is travelling to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire from the Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, Internet plane spotters noticed this afternoon.
A C-5M Super Galaxy transport aircraft filed a flight plan between the two bases this morning providing the first indication that the Gloucestershire airfield is preparing for US bombers to land there.
The conflict further escalated today as the US and Israel launched heavy bombing raids on Tehran and Lebanon – as Donald Trump said there would be no deal with Iran unless it is an ‘unconditional surrender’.
Sources have now suggested that Saturday could be D-day for Trump’s new gigantic bombardment – exactly a week after America and Israel first attacked Iran as part of ‘Operation Epic Fury’.
The US President warned Iran this week that the ‘big one’ was coming, adding: ‘We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave has not even happened’.
While Keir Starmer previously refused to allow US bombers to use British bases, his subsequent climbdown means American B-2 stealth bombers are set to land at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands ‘in a matter of days’.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said overnight that America will now use British RAF bases to ‘dramatically’ up its strikes on Iran.
‘When we say more to come, it’s more fighter squadrons, it’s more capabilities, it’s more defensive capabilities, and it’s more bomber pulses more frequently’, Mr Hegseth said.
It comes as –
- Trump said he would not strike a deal without Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender’;
- Nearly 24,000 Americans were evacuated from Middle East to avoid attacks;
- Speculation grew that IRGC commander Qaani has been executed for spying;
- Gas prices continued to rise as the Iranians threaten the Strait of Hormuz;
- Bombshell report claimed Russia is sharing intelligence with Iran aid attacks;
- Iranian missiles struck a hotel and two residential buildings in Bahrain;
The B-1s, which are based at Dyess in Texas, can carry out long-range missions without detection while carrying the world’s most devastating missiles.
They are the backbone of America’s long-range bomber force and according to the US Air Force can ‘rapidly deliver massive quantities of precision and non-precision weapons against any adversary, anywhere in the world, at any time’.
‘The B-1 is a highly versatile, multi-mission weapon system,’ the force’s website boasts.
‘The B-1B’s synthetic aperture radar is capable of tracking, targeting and engaging moving vehicles as well as self-targeting and terrain-following modes.’
In a further sign of air activity hotting up around Fairford, a temporary Transponder Mandatory Zone (TMZ) has been put in place today.
The move, which requires aircraft to switch their transponders on in that area for better safety by making them easier ofor air traffic control to spot, came into force at 3pm for the next month – indicating that the base will be busier than normal for at least the next few weeks.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the US aircraft’s movements when approached by the Daily Mail.
However, experts believe some US bombers could drop the ‘Mother of All Bombs’, a 10-tonne explosive that creates 1,000ft holes in the ground, taking out tunnels and bunkers while simultaneously pulling infrastructures such as bridges down into the giant crater.
Today, Trump said there would be no deal with Iran unless it is an ‘unconditional surrender.
He made the remarks on social media just hours after Iran’s president announced that unspecified countries had begun mediation efforts, one of the first signals of any diplomatic initiative to end the conflict.
Writing on Truth Social on Friday, the US President said: ‘There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!
‘After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before.’
And today central Tehran was hit with one of the biggest explosions of the war so far on Friday.
There were deafening bangs and multiple plumes of smoke and fireballs as a huge payload hit the Moqaddad base of the Revolutionary Guards. Tehran’s famous Azadi Tower can be seen in the centre of a video as the bombs rained down on the Iranian capital.
Debris was thrown across the city centre and some witnesses even claimed have seen bodies thrown up more than 100ft in the air.
Military experts appear to agree that Trump’s ‘big one’ points to an escalation in US bombing sorties over Iran in the next 24 to 48 hours – and also dropping America’s biggest bombs.
America’s army of Reaper drones carrying thousands of pounds of laser-guided bombs to carry our precision strikes will also increase sorties over Iranian cities. While Attacks from air craft carriers and missiles from US submarines are also expected.
As Trump laid into Sir Keir Starmer for delaying access to UK military runways around the world, including in Diego Garcia, Mr Hegseth said last night: ‘We got there’.
‘The amount of firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically,’ Mr Hegseth warned.
The MOAB, the US’s largest non-nuclear weapon, may be dropped in the coming days and weeks.
Nicknamed the ‘Mother Of All Bombs’ – a play on ‘MOAB,’ an acronym that stands for ‘Massive Ordnance Air Burst.’
A crater left by the blast is believed to be more than 100ft wide. Anyone at the blast site is vaporised.
It has not yet been deployed in Iran but was used in Afghanistan in 2017.
President Trump has long told reporters at the White House how ‘very proud’ he is of it.
American B-2 bombers did drop similarly destructive GBU-57 bunker-busters on Iranian uranium enrichment sites in June 2025.
The MOAB causes surface-level, wide-area destruction, while the GBU-57 burrows deep into the earth before exploding.
Military experts have said that the ‘big one’ Trump has warned Iran will use America’s most destructive arsenal – and appears imminent.
Sascha Bruchmann, a research fellow for defence at the office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Bahrain, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The big one is a sustained bombing campaign via the strategic bomber fleet, so the B-1s, the B-2s and the B-52s.
‘Last night, Centcom [US Central Command] said there was one B-1 bomber, and the night before there were four B-2s, who dropped heavier payloads, so 1,000 to 2,000lb bombs with some bunker-busting capabilities against those missile cities.
‘Now that there’s air dominance achieved, and we’ve seen US Reaper drones over cities, which you wouldn’t have if there were some kind of air defences’.
Iain Ballantyne, editor of Warships International Fleet Review magazine, told the newspaper: ‘The most obvious thing that President Trump may mean by “the big one” is some kind of MOAB – the “Mother of All Bombs”.’
He added that these terrifying air attacks would be ‘co-ordinated with the US navy unleashing not only the USS Gerald R. Ford but also the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike groups – both Tomahawk [missiles] from their destroyers and air wings – along with possible bombardments by submarines’.
