Here’s everything we know about the deployment that followed the attack on the US embassy in Baghdad which involved at least 30 aircraft (that could be tracked online via ADS-B).

Last week, on Dec 29, 2019 American fighter jets struck five facilities belonging to Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria, after the group launched a rocket attack against an Iraqi base near Kirkuk that resulted in the death of a US contractor and injured four US service members, as well as members of the Iraqi Security Forces. At least 50 members of the Iranian-backed militia were injured and 25 were killed, including also senior leaders of the group.

On Dec. 31, 2019 a large group of people, initially reported as protesters, marched trough Baghdad’s Green Zone, reaching the US Embassy. Among them there were also members of the KH militia wearing camouflage uniforms and bearing the militia’s flag. The crowd assaulted the embassy, setting on fire walls, guard positions and vehicles while trying to breach into the building.

There were no plans to evacuate the embassy and the US Marines which took defensive positions on the roof used non-lethal weapons to try to repel the attack without further escalating the situation. The embassy was later in the day reinforced by 100 Marines, airlifted there by MV-22B Ospreys supported by at least one AH-64E Apache Guardian, and Iraqi Security Forces stationed on the perimeter.

As you probably already know by now, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper authorized the deployment of an infantry battalion from the Immediate Response Force of the 82nd Airborne Division in response of the embassy attack. 750 paratroopers were deployed in 18 hours to the Central Command Area Of Responsibility (CENTCOM AOR), with more being readied for further deployments in the following days.

What’s interesting about this is that it was possible to track the entire deployment by the use of ADS-B, Mode S and MLAT allowing us to discover some details of the operation through Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools.

The first two flights were noticed out of Ft. Bragg, home of the 82nd AD, in the evening of New Year’s Eve (European time zone, late morning in the USA), with a third C-17 departing some hours later. The C-17s belong to either the 315th or the 437th Airlift Wing based at Joint Base Charleston and used callsigns RCH892, RCH893 and RCH894.

Pair of C-17A transports out of Fort Bragg. pic.twitter.com/GSg5qNMfzX — Oppa Gopnik Style (@vcdgf555) December 31, 2019

Another C-17 lifting out of Fort Bragg. Following path for now relatively similar to two earlier. Like the first two, the aircraft calls JB Charleston home, just a short skip from Bragg. pic.twitter.com/jijAeybTFG — Oppa Gopnik Style (@vcdgf555) December 31, 2019

After disappearing due to the lack of coverage, the C-17s were tracked again over the Azores while enroute to a rendez-vous with KC-135R tankers of the 100th Air Refueling Win departed from RAF Mildenhall, with callsigns QID534, QID535, QID536.

That’s a great screencap. KC-135 and C-17 hookup, either in progress or near complete between Spain and Algeria. Air to air refueling is an amazing piece of technology, hard work, tremendous skill, & maybe a touch of luck. And they are doing this in pitch black. Hats off, guys. pic.twitter.com/PLKh7x45oP — Oppa Gopnik Style (@vcdgf555) January 1, 2020

3rd C-17 out of Fort Bragg has popped up the same way as the other 2 earlier, and here comes his tanker out of RAF Mildenhall. The first 2 are south of Italy and have been unusually very visual most of their flight. pic.twitter.com/Phc8s2IHje — Oppa Gopnik Style (@vcdgf555) January 1, 2020

The Globemasters crossed the Mediterranean Sea and entered holding patterns over Crete before heading to Egypt.

07:30 UTC update of the routes of #RCH892 and #RCH893 show some holding over Crete before heading for #Egypt. I will post more when I got time. pic.twitter.com/vfXDuWTJzn — Gerjon | חריון (@Gerjon_) January 1, 2020

These 3 C-17s flew around the Sinai Peninsula and landed at Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan. They later departed Jordan and headed towards Baghdad, before changing route and landing at Kuwait International Airport.

Can now confirm that the three first C-17As that were quickly flown into #Jordan yesterday (i.e. #RCH892, #RCH893, #RCH894), have continued their journey to #Iraq. RCH892, for example, has continued to Iraq and from there to #Kuwait. (aircraft icons)#IraqiProtests pic.twitter.com/PPnecQVkfk — Gerjon | חריון (@Gerjon_) January 2, 2020

Meanwhile, a C-32 (military variant of the Boeing 757-200), callsign RCH584, belonging to the secretive 486th Flight Test Squadron landed at either NAS Rota or Morón AB, in Spain. The C-32 is often used by the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST), a US interagency team poised to respond to terrorism incidents worldwide on short notice. After taking off again, it flew towards Crete before disappearing from online tracking websites.

🕵🏼‍♂️ Earlier today, 99-6143, A FEST/SOCOM (Foreign Emergency Support Team) “Superspooks” Boeing C-32B (ICAO: AE0446) flew from somewhere around Eglin AFB (USA) to #Rota Naval Air Station as #RCH584. Do you agree @Lp_adsb? Origin: up to you to judge.https://t.co/0hyOxy51C4 pic.twitter.com/TKHS3L3hoB — Gerjon | חריון (@Gerjon_) January 1, 2020

Getting further along. C-32B/B757 99-6143 approaching Crete. pic.twitter.com/J5RGDVQ17t — Oppa Gopnik Style (@vcdgf555) January 1, 2020

Interestingly, a Gulfstream G-III with registration N173PA, flew to Bahrain at around the same time. This plane, better known as “Ebola Jet” for being the only one capable of safely transporting citizens who contracted the Ebola virus back to the US, belongs to Phoenix Air, an air ambulance service out of Cartersville, Georgia, which according to rumors could be linked to CIA.

🕵🏼‍♂️As tensions around the U.S. Embassy in #Iraq are rising, “Ebola jet” Phoenix Air N173PA, known for providing U.S. Government services, flew from the US to Bahrain.

21:50-23:30 UTC ground stop at Washington (IAD) with transponder running.#potn #avgeek #IraqEmbassyAttack https://t.co/UCndDxXeOZ pic.twitter.com/ziEmIwTx7w — Gerjon | חריון (@Gerjon_) January 1, 2020

Another noteworthy deployment on the first day of 2020 started from RAF Mildenhall, which saw the departure of at least three MC-130J Commando II of the 67th Special Operations Squadron and three CV-22B Osprey of the 7th Special Operations Squadron, all headed to the Middle East. Another MC-130J followed on January 2.

It looks like a couple of MC-130J and V-22 Osprey aircraft from RAF Mildenhall are also active now. They include:

MC-130J:#HOOCH41, 13-5786#HOOCH21, 10-5714

11-5731

V-22 Osprey:#SAMBA82#SAMBA84

(+others)

Interesting, to say the least. Ain’t nobody gonna do training on Jan 01! https://t.co/JO5b85LRzI — Gerjon | חריון (@Gerjon_) January 1, 2020

Heading West over the Mediterranean:

USAF MC-130J Commando II 11-5731

USAF MC-130J Commando II 12-5760

USAF MC-130J Commando II HOOCH41

USAF MC-130J Commando II HOOCH21

USAF FEST C32B RCH584 pic.twitter.com/U0FGvhCEjK — Manu Gómez (@GDarkconrad) January 1, 2020

The 3xMC-130J Commando II from the 352nd SOS RAF Mildenahll are airborne again and assumed to be heading to the Middle East Theatre. Reports suggest they landed at Istres-Le Tubé Air Base in France #AvGeek #RadioGeek #MilMonWorld pic.twitter.com/BOkctA1Tj3 — Military Monitoring World 📡 (@MilMonWorld) January 1, 2020

Other C-17s took off on January 1 from Ft. Bragg and also Ft. Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne Division and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR). Another C-17 departed from McChord AFB and made a stop in Ft. Campbell before heading to the CENTCOM AOR. Considering the aforementioned deployment of CV-22s and the fact that these three locations are home of many special operations units (3rd Special Forces Group in Ft. Bragg, 5th SFG and 160th SOAR in Ft. Campbell, 1st SFG, 4th Btn/160th SOAR and 2nd Ranger Battalion/75th Ranger Regiment in McChord) we can’t rule out also the deployment of a special operations task force. Anyway, C-17s from McChord participated in the deployment of the 82nd AD.

Just now, a 2nd pair of C-17 from Dover AFB, DE has started their descent for Fort Campbell also. I dunno what it means, I’m speculating it is related to ongoing events overseas, but this info has been out on ads-b for a couple hours and I sat on it until there was coincidence. pic.twitter.com/hQhnm7lzz2 — Oppa Gopnik Style (@vcdgf555) January 1, 2020

In the first two days 32 aircraft involved in the deployment were tracked online, 20 of which were C-17s. On January 2 other C-17s flew from the US to the Middle East, this time landing at Ramstein AB (Germany) for refueling, instead of performing air-to-air refueling over the Mediterranean Sea.

Back. Updates: 3x new C-17, and the 4x MC-130Js from England earlier are now involved. By my count, this makes at least 32 known planes involved, including 20x C-17. There are 222 in USAF inventory. (1)C-17s from Campbell going to Ramstein.

(2)C-17s from Bragg pass a C-5. pic.twitter.com/rbfJtnNA6e — Oppa Gopnik Style (@vcdgf555) January 1, 2020

Current situation: 5x C-17 over Europe heading to CENTCOM AOR: RCH657, RCH626, RCH663, RCH311 and RCH688 pic.twitter.com/Y7JuEzONqD — Stefano D’Urso (@stedur93) January 2, 2020

Some of the C-17 are currently flying back to Ramstein.

Leading the pack of 20+ C-17A Globemasters was #RCH892 (10-0222), quickly flown from Pope AAF to Iraq with AAR in the western Mediterranean and a stop in Jordan (Muwaffaq Salti). After a stop in Iraq (Al Assad), and #Kuwait she’s back over the Mediterranean now.#IraqProtests pic.twitter.com/3n4krskwFg — Gerjon | חריון (@Gerjon_) January 2, 2020

Proving that not all flights for #IraqProtests actually go into #Iraq is #RCH657 (03-3124), visualized in this graph. Today she flew #Ramstein – Ali Al Salem (#Kuwait) and is currently returning to Ramstein. The same holds for #RCH626 (10-0217) and #RCH663 (04-4132), not shown. pic.twitter.com/8rYEclmVtW — Gerjon | חריון (@Gerjon_) January 2, 2020

At this time, it’s still not known how many soldiers will be deployed and how many airlift flights will be performed. However the US Defense Secretary stated that they expect further attacks from the militia and they are ready to perform preemptive strikes if needed. Indeed, along with the flights related to the 82nd AD’s and AFSOC elements mobilisations, there can be additional deployments underway, some of those not completely “visible” on the Internet. Whatever, the level of details that can be gathered by OSINT (Open Sources Intelligence) in real-time is rather impressive.

Here’s, for instance, the heads-up to the deployment of four MC-130H via Rota, Spain:

Rare catch 4 X MC130 Combat Talons in one go. Landing at Rota 2/1/2020. On their way to the ME? #avgeek #potn @cencio4 pic.twitter.com/f90BlUBxwt — David Parody 🇬🇮 (@dparody) January 2, 2020

There are also AC-130 gunships on the way:

RCH1035 AC-130 87-9288 landed at Lajes two hours ago. RCH1013 MC-130H 87-0125 flew Lajes-Rota this morning. — Arjen Peters (@FireFlying11) January 2, 2020

You can get a pretty good “picture” of what is happening in these hours by following, among all the others, these accounts on Twitter: @Gerjon_ @vcdgf555 @CivMilAir @GDarkconrad @ItaMilRadar @Intel_Sky @planesonthenet @MilMonWorld @AircraftSpots @FireFlying11 (we have probably forgotten someone, in this case apologies).





