Personnel from the U-2 unit operating from RAF Fairford applied nose art to one of the aircraft as a tribute to the three US Army soldiers killed recently by a drone at the Tower 22 base in Jordan.

Some members of the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron (ERS) gathered on Saturday afternoon February 4, to sketch a mural on the nose of U-2S, 80-096/BB. In a US Air Force press release an unnamed airman from the 99th ERS at the Gloucestershire base said: “A group of us decided to do a memorial to remember those who fell in Tower 22 in Jordan…I personally knew Sgt Breonna Moffett. We grew up together in Savannah, Georgia.” The artwork applied to the U-2 included a castle representing all Army Combat Engineers, the Georgia state flag, the Army rank of sergeant and the names Rivers, Sanders and Moffett. “We want her family to know that there are people who still remember her, even if we're thousands of miles away.”

The drone attack on January 28 was carried out, according to US President Joe Biden, by “radical Iran-backed militant groups". Iran has denied any involvement in the attack on the US base. Staff Sgt William Rivers, Sgt Kennedy Sanders and Sgt Breonna Moffett were killed while dozens of US military personnel were also injured. The three soldiers were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, an Army Reserve unit based in Fort Moore, Georgia.

The US launched the first of its retaliatory strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria on the evening of February 2, which included B-1B Lancer bombers flying roundtrips from the US.

The aforementioned U-2 flew with the tribute nose art the next morning on February 5.