AP reported yesterday that about a dozen U.S. Navy F-18 fighter jets flew from the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier to an unidentified military base in the Middle East, as part of the Pentagon’s effort to help defend Israel from possible attacks by Iran and its proxies and to safeguard U.S. troops, according to an unnamed U.S. official. The F/A-18s and an E-2D Hawkeye surveillance aircraft took off from the carrier in the Gulf of Oman and arrived at the undisclosed base on Monday, Aug. 5, said the official.
The Navy jets’ land-based deployment is expected to be temporary, because a squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets is en route to the same base from their home station in Alaska. The roughly dozen F-22s are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days, said the official. It’s not clear how long all of the aircraft will remain together at the base, and that may depend on what—if anything—happens in the next few days.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin indicated yesterday that more U.S. forces would be coming to the region. “What I’ve been focused on is making sure that we’re doing everything we can to put measures in place to protect our troops and also make sure that we’re in a good position to aid in the defense of Israel, if called upon to do that,” Austin said, reported TASS.
The Council on Foreign Relations published an article yesterday with a map of U.S. bases in the region. “The United States maintains a considerable military presence in the Middle East, with forces in more than a dozen countries and on ships throughout the region’s waters,” authors Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow write. “That presence has expanded in 2024 as the United States focuses on deterring and defeating threats from Iran and its network of armed affiliates in the region....”
