The US military is repositioning assets and moving additional forces to the Middle East and Europe to defend against a possible attack on Israel by Iran, US officials said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the deployment of additional Navy destroyers and cruisers, with both offensive and defensive ballistic missile capabilities, while the Pentagon is also taking steps to bolster land-based missile defense, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a statement late Friday. An additional squadron of fighter jets will also be deployed to the Middle East to bolster defensive air support, she said.
The statement did not identify which ships and units would participate, but said they would add to the “broad range of capabilities the U.S. military maintains in the region.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the deployment of additional Navy destroyers and cruisers, with both offensive and defensive ballistic missile capabilities, while the Pentagon is also taking steps to bolster ground-based missile defense, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a statement late Friday. An additional squadron of fighter jets will also be deployed to the Middle East to bolster defensive air support, she said.
The statement did not identify which ships and units would participate, but said they would add to the “broad range of capabilities the U.S. military maintains in the region.”
Austin also ordered the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier, and its associated escort ships to ensure that one carrier remains in the region, Singh said. Another aircraft carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was in the Gulf of Oman on Friday accompanied by several other warships after they recently left the Persian Gulf, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The shift leaves open the possibility that they could move to Israel if they sail west around Yemen toward the Red Sea.
The moves come after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate following the killing this week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and a senior Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr.
Haniyeh was killed in a strike at a residence in Tehran protected by the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Israel has not claimed responsibility, but U.S. officials privately acknowledge it was behind the killing. Washington was not informed of the operation in advance and had no role in it, the officials have said.
Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a Beirut suburb in retaliation for an attack last weekend in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed several children as they played on a soccer field.
The developments have brought the region closer to full-blown conflict, perhaps closer than at any time since the Gaza war began ten months ago with a bloody cross-border attack by Hamas.
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and a host of militias in Iraq and Syria receive arms and training from Iran, part of a vast anti-Israel and anti-American network that Tehran has supported for years.
U.S. officials had revealed little as of Friday evening about how they were preparing for the possibility of an attack, but the White House said Thursday night that President Biden had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and affirmed his commitment to Israeli security “against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.”
“The president discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including ballistic missiles and drones, including new U.S. defensive military deployments,” said a brief statement summarizing the two leaders’ call.
The recent bloodshed came after a widespread drone and missile attack by Iran on Israel in April, in which the US military intervened, shooting down numerous drones and missiles while Israeli forces intercepted others. Iran launched that attack after an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria killed two Iranian generals and other Iranian military personnel.
“As we have demonstrated since October and again in April, America’s global defense is dynamic, and the Department of Defense retains the ability to deploy on short notice to meet evolving national security threats,” Singh said in his Friday statement. “The United States also remains focused on reducing tensions in the region and pressing for a ceasefire as part of a hostage agreement to bring the hostages home and end the war in Gaza.”
Among the options available to assist are fighter aircraft aboard the Theodore Roosevelt and nearby naval destroyers, including the USS Daniel Inouye, USS Russell, USS Cole, USS Laboon and USS Michael Murphy. The destroyer USS John S. McCain is also in the region, staying in the Persian Gulf while the other U.S. warships have moved, the U.S. official familiar with the repositioning said.
Five other US warships are in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and could assist Israel if requested. They include the USS Wasp, the USS Oak Hill, the USS New York, the USS Bulkeley and the USS Roosevelt.
The Bulkeley and Roosevelt are destroyers with offensive and defensive ballistic missile capabilities, while the other three make up the Wasp Amphibious Ready Group, a three-ship team of more than 4,000 U.S. Marines and sailors that includes Marine Corps fighter aircraft, an infantry battalion and other combat forces from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
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