US to send more combat aircraft and warships to Middle East, officials say

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday ordered additional combat aircraft and missile-shooting warships to the Middle East in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel in the coming days to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh, the Pentagon said.

The military will send an additional squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets, an unspecified number of additional Navy cruisers and destroyers capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, and, if needed, more land-based ballistic-missile defense systems.

To maintain the presence of an aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships in the region, Austin also directed the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, now in the eastern Pacific, to relieve the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the next couple of weeks when it is scheduled to return home.

Some ships already in the western Mediterranean Sea will move east, closer to the coast of Israel to provide more security, a senior Pentagon official said.

“Secretary Austin has ordered adjustments to U.S. military posture designed to improve U.S. force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies,” Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.

The statement did not specify when the additional warplanes and combatant vessels would arrive, but officials said Friday it would be a matter of days for the additional aircraft and somewhat longer for the naval reinforcements.

Earlier on Friday, officials were still deciding how many additional planes and warships to send. Officials said they were seeking to calibrate the U.S. response to send enough of the right types of aircraft and ships as quickly as possible to help defend Israel without appearing to escalate the conflict.

Singh, in a news conference earlier Friday, had raised the possibility that the United States could also send additional troops to operate whatever additional capabilities the Pentagon sends to the region. The support, she said, would be defensive in nature.

She said that during a telephone call that Austin held with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Friday morning, Austin “committed” that the United States would help Israel in its defense. “We will be bolstering our force protection in the region,” she said.

The Pentagon is also bracing for the possibility that Iran-backed groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, might target U.S. troops in the region as part of the expected Iranian retaliation for the killing of Haniyeh this week.

Austin, during the conversation with Gallant, expressed concerns about the dangers of escalation. He said that “all countries” in the region would benefit from defusing tensions, Singh said.

In addition to about 80 land-based combat aircraft, the Pentagon has already deployed more than a dozen warships in the region. The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, equipped with about 40 F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-35 attack planes, is now steaming near the Persian Gulf, while the USS Wasp amphibious ready group, with 30 airplanes and helicopters as well as 4,500 Marines and sailors, is operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Any additional air power could be crucial. Iran fired more than 300 drones and missiles against Israel in a major attack in April, but only a handful got through, causing slight damage. U.S. Air Force jets based in Jordan and in Saudi Arabia coordinated with French, Jordanian and British air force fighters to shoot down more than 80 drones.

Iran telegraphed that strike in advance, giving the Pentagon sufficient time to move additional combat aircraft and Navy ships into place while U.S. commanders negotiated access to airspace for fighter jets and coordinated air defense batteries on the ground to help defend Israel.

It is unclear whether Israel and its allies will have that much time to prepare for any new round of major Iranian attacks, officials said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2024 The New York Times Company