Monday's developments mark the latest complication in more than 10 years of pretrial hearings for a Saudi accused of organizing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole.
The attack on the suspected militant is the latest in a series of strikes over the past years targeting al-Qaida-linked militants in northwestern Syria.
The EC-130H Compass Call worked behind the scenes for two decades in Afghanistan, from supporting the arrival of special forces, to the bin Laden raid and the Kabul evacuation.
Between March 2015 and November 2018, the Pentagon spent about $300 million to fly aerial refueling missions in support of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others engaged in the nearly eight-year conflict.