US army builds up plane at bases in Britain as fleet of C-17 Globemasters land on UK soil following Venezuela strike
The United States is building up its military air forces in Britain following its audacious Special Forces mission to capture Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
In recent days a fleet of ten C-17 Globemasters and a pair of heavily armed AC-130J landed at two bases seemingly in preparation for further operations.
Security has been stepped up at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, bases the Royal Air Force shares with US counterparts.
These aircraft, the C-17 being one of the world’s largest transport aircraft, and the smaller but more potent AC-130J, would join forces in any covert US operation overseas.
Special Forces personnel could parachute from the AC-130J and receive covering fire on landing from ground-attack weapons including Vulcan cannons, howitzers and Hellfire missiles.
The Boeing C-17 provides a long range transport capability for US forces around the world.
One of the ten C-17s to have arrived in the UK from the US parked on the runway at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
The AC-130J boasts an impressive array of firepower including cannons, howitzers and Hellfire missiles.
They could also be dropped from any of the ten C-17s that crossed the Atlantic from bases in Kentucky and Georgia in recent days.
The 173ft-long transporters, powered by turbofan engines, can carry tanks and boast a payload capacity exceeding 500,000 pounds.
RAF Fairford is a long-established European hub for US military movements in the region and in the Middle East.
The arrivals of the C-17s and the C-130s coincided with the dramatic US operation to capture Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
It also came as US President Donald Trump threatened to engage other countries in the region and Iran, should the country’s theocratic regime clamp down on protests.
The aircraft could also be used to step up Special Forces operations against Islamic State in Syria.
Today, the Ministry of Defence said it would not comment ‘on the operational activity of other nations’.
