Satellite images show a rapid increase of US military planes in bases across Europe and the Middle East amid rising tensions with Iran.
– The US military has rapidly increased its presence near Iran, shifting more than 150 aircraft to bases in Europe and the Middle East since a second round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran ended without a breakthrough on February 17.
– The current presence of US military forces in the region “is among the largest” since before the Iraq war, more than two decades ago.
– US President Donald Trump has threatened on several occasions to attack Iran unless a deal on its nuclear program is reached. Iranian officials have said a deal is possible but would take time.
– The deployment this time around surpasses the military buildup seen before the US struck Iran in June last year
– “They said the assets being assembled are indicative of a multiday campaign without a ground invasion,” the Washington Post reported.
– “The massive level of force amassed means the US military can execute on whatever Trump decides – anything from a sustained, highly kinetic campaign to more targeted, limited strikes,” the Washington Post quoted Dana Stroul, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, as saying.
– However, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Mark Cancian said if “the administration is planning for an extended, weeks-long air campaign, even more military assets will be needed.”
– Washington currently has more than a dozen warships in the Middle East: one aircraft carrier – the USS Abraham Lincoln – nine destroyers and three littoral combat ships.
– It is rare for there to be two US aircraft carriers – which carry dozens of warplanes and are crewed by thousands of sailors – in the Middle East.
– The United States had two of the massive warships in the region in June last year when it bombed three Iranian nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran.
– The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world’s largest aircraft carrier, reached the US naval base of Souda Bay on Crete on Tuesday, en route to joining a massive military build-up in the Middle East.