According to The Washington Post, the US military presence in the Middle East region is one of the largest in more than two decades, since before the war in Iraq in 2003. The massive deployment of the US military comes this time after US President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran if an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program is not reached.
The Washington Post reported that there are currently more ships and aircraft in the region than before the US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in June last year. According to the newspaper’s experts, the collected funds indicate that the US is preparing for a “several-day campaign without a ground invasion”.
“The amount of forces amassed means the US military can do whatever Trump decides to do — from a sustained, massive campaign to more targeted, limited strikes,” said Dana Stroul, director of research at the Washington Institute, a think tank focused on US foreign policy in the Middle East.
According to The Washington Post, more than half of the newly deployed American aircraft landed at bases in Europe. “Placing the aircraft in Eastern Europe, out of range of the vast majority of Iranian missiles, and not at bases in the Persian Gulf, is a US strategy to deploy aircraft so that they do not present an attractive target for the Iranians,” said Gregory Brew, Eurasia Group’s senior analyst for Iran.
According to the letter, most of the aircraft that appear in the flight tracking data are cargo and refueling machines. Fighter planes moved with their transponders turned off for the sake of secrecy.
According to independent expert Steffan Watkins, the US has moved more than a third of its E-3G Sentry early warning and control aircraft fleet to Europe and the Middle East in recent weeks. Lakenheath air base in the United Kingdom hosts at least a dozen F-22A Raptor machines, and F-16 Fighting Falcons appeared in the Azores. At least ten F-35 Lightning II fighters landed at Chania airport in Crete.
There are also at least 12 of them at the Muvafak as-Salti air base in Jordan. F-35 aircraft are often used to attack enemy air defenses, thus creating a safer path for other machines. “This advanced fighter equipped with stealth technology is also capable of electronic warfare,” noted Brew.
Two American aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford and the USS Abraham Lincoln, with approximately 180 aircraft are now within operational distance of Iran.
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