US troops abseil from aircraft in training drills at RAF base as Trump builds up military forces in Britain after capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro
American special forces were filmed performing speed rope drills at RAF airfield after rounding up military aircraft in Britain.
Elite soldiers were seen rappelling from a CV-22B tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft as part of an exercise at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire yesterday.
The US is boosting its military capabilities in Britain following its daring mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The new images also coincide with a new operation.After more than two weeks of pursuit across the Atlantic, we captured a Venezuela-bound oil tanker.
It was claimed that in the pictures in the Russian media, a helicopter was seen approaching the Bella-1 ship earlier today.
The helicopter appears to be an American MH-6 Little Bird.
Although it is unclear whether the UK had a hand in the attack on the tanker, many US military planes have been seen arriving in the UK in recent days.
This includes a squadron of 14 C-17 Globemasters and two heavily armed AC-130J Ghostrider gunships landing at Fairford and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk.
Elite soldiers were seen rappelling from a CV-22B tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft as part of an exercise at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire yesterday.
Ospreys seen at Fairford The US air force’s 7th Special Operations Squadron, which specializes in long-range infiltration, extraction and resupply.
They left the base this morning and are not showing up on flight tracking systems.
The C-17, one of the world’s largest transport aircraft, and the smaller but more powerful AC-130J would join forces in any covert US operation overseas.
Special Forces personnel can parachute from the AC-130J and receive covering fire from ground attack weapons during landing, including Vulcan cannons, howitzers and Hellfire missiles.
They could also be launched from any of the ten C-17s that have crossed the Atlantic in recent days from bases in Kentucky and Georgia.
The 173-ft-long carriers, powered by turbofan engines, can carry tanks and have a payload capacity exceeding 500,000 pounds.
The arrival of the C-17s and C-130s coincided with the dramatic US operation to capture President Maduro and ongoing US threats to Greenland.
The new footage coincides with a new operation to seize a Venezuela-bound oil tanker after more than two weeks of pursuit across the Atlantic
Last night European leaders confronted Mr Trump over his administration’s threat to use military force to seize the region, vowing to protect the region’s ‘territorial integrity’.
The president and his top advisers are exploring plans including buying Danish territory or assuming defense responsibility, according to a senior administration official.
The White House said ‘using the US military is always an option’ and warned that the problem ‘will not go away’ despite objections from NATO leaders.
The statement horrified America’s NATO allies, who have rallied around Denmark in recent days as Trump reiterated his threat to invade Greenland following the capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
Seven leaders from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark announced in their press statement that they “will not stop defending” Greenland despite the threats.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a New York courtroom on Monday
They called America an ‘important partner’ and reiterated that the US and Denmark signed a defense agreement in 1951.
‘Greenland belongs to its people. “The authority to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland belongs to Denmark and Greenland, and to them alone,” they said.
The Ministry of Defense declined to comment on ‘operational activities of other nations’.
