The U.S. Air Force has moved the bulk of its operations to Jordan because the Iranians have made the use of the bases in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE all but impossible. Enemy Watch published undated satellite imagery July 19 it said showed the evacuation of aircraft parking ramps used by KC-135, KC-46, C-17, and AWACS aircraft at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
“This indicates an effort by U.S. forces to reduce potential damage to their strategic assets in the region,” it said. “Although relocating these aircraft to alternate bases reduces the likelihood of their destruction, it also imposes significant operational costs, including increasing the distance from the operational theater. This is particularly significant for aerial refueling operations, as a greater portion of the tankers’ flight capacity must be devoted to reaching the operational area, thereby reducing the amount of fuel available for transfer.” The Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan, which the Iranians have been pounding, is 1,400 km from Tehran while the Strait of Hormuz is 2,000 km away, considerable distances for fighter jet operations. A large portion of U.S. strikes are likely being launched from the aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln and USS George H.W. Bush both operating in the Arabian Sea.
Retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the head of the Air and Space Force Association’s Mitchell Institute commented on this for the New York Times. Jordan’s location allows the United States to conduct “more efficient air operations across Syria, Iraq and the broader region,” he said in an email on Saturday, referring to the Iranian missile strike that killed three American personnel. “Friday’s attack was therefore not just an attack on a base,” he added. “It was an attack on the U.S. regional coalition and an attempt to make the political cost of hosting American forces greater than the security benefit.”
