Two news reports emerged yesterday claiming that damage suffered by U.S. forces during the 40-day US–Israeli bombing campaign of Iran was worse than initially reported. Air and Space Forces Magazine reported that Iranian missiles pounded the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar during the early weeks of the war, rendering it inoperable. They claim that US air operations were unaffected because US Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) had already evacuated the CAOC and moved operational control to its backup facility at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina prior to the beginning of the war on Feb. 28.
Nonetheless, Iran’s attacks have led Pentagon officials to suggest the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East may look very different in the future. “We don’t know what our future posture is going to be,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Jules “Jay” Hurst III told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense last month. “We don’t know how those bases would be reconstructed.”
