As fighting between Israel and Iran carries on for a second week, the United States continues to build up its already large presence in the Middle East.
For the last 20 months, U.S. forces have sent ground, air, and naval assets into the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, both as deterrents against Iran and as part of more than a year of fighting against the Houthis in Yemen. There are approximately 40,000 U.S. troops in the area currently, including a Navy carrier strike group with another on the way, several fighter squadrons and two of the United States’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense or THAAD systems, one of its most advanced missile defense interceptors.
The Pentagon recently sent additional air and naval assets to the area, as the Trump administration threatens to potentially attack Iran, out of the stated intent of stopping Tehran from getting a nuclear bomb, though American intelligence found in March that the country is not pursuing development of nuclear weapons.
The military maintains 10 bases in the region, including major installations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as smaller outposts in Jordan and Syria, among others. There are also additional forces and support infrastructure in Turkey and Djibouti, although those are not under CENTCOM’s purview, which covers the Middle East, Egypt, and much of Central Asia, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
There are currently 2,500 service members in Iraq and roughly 1,500 in Syria. They are there primarily as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing anti-ISIS fight. American forces are starting a drawdown from Syria but still maintain posts in the country’s south and east. In Iraq, U.S. soldiers have at least two MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile batteries — one in Irbil in Iraqi Kurdistan and another at the al-Asad airbase in the country’s west. Both have seen action in past interception missions over the Middle East. Additionally, two THAAD air defense systems, operated by roughly 100 American soldiers each, are deployed to Israel.
By air and by sea
The USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group is in the Arabian Sea. Along with the carrier and its embarked Carrier Air Wing 2, the task force includes the guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton and the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Sterett and USS William P. Lawrence. Carrier Air Wing 2 includes close to 50 fighters and strike aircraft across three squadrons of F/A-18E/F strike fighters and one squadron each of F-35C fighters and E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare fighters.
Three other destroyers, the USS Sullivans, the USS Arleigh Burke, and the USS Thomas Hudner, are in the eastern Mediterranean. The USS Thomas Hudner had previously taken part in interceptions of Houthi missiles in late 2023. Another pair of independent destroyers are in the Red Sea, per USNI News.
In Bahrain, the headquarters of the 5th Fleet, the Navy also has four anti-mining vessels.
Soon to join the Carl Vinson is the USS Nimitz, whose deployment to the region was moved up earlier this month. The Nimitz, on its final operational deployment before being decommissioned, will arrive with four guided-missile destroyers and similar air power to the Vinson with Carrier Air Wing 17. Originally meant to replace the Carl Vinson, the two carrier groups will overlap in their deployment to the CENTCOM area of responsibility, a tactic that has been regularly used in the last 20 months.
The U.S. Air Force also maintains a strong presence at some of CENTCOM’s major bases. Ali al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait hosts the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, while the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing is in Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Both installations include dozens of combat aircraft as well as military drones such as the MQ-9 Reaper. Air Force jets proved to be a major part of the successful interception operation in April 2024, when American and other partner forces shot down dozens of Iranian drones and ballistic missiles aimed at Israel.
In the last week, more than two dozen Air Force refueling tankers flew across the Atlantic to the Middle East and Europe, in a buildup of logistical support. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that an unspecified number of F-16, F-22, and F-35 fighter jets were being sent over.
Outside of the CENTCOM area of responsibility, U.S. forces also maintain bombers and other aircraft at their Indian Ocean base on the island of Diego Garcia. That strategic outpost — jointly operated with the United Kingdom — is a staging base for B-2 bombers. B-2s were briefly sent over earlier in the spring. Their ability to be based there has been a major discussion point this week as the U.S. weighs targeting Iranian nuclear facilities — the Fordo nuclear site is several hundred feet underground, too deep for most bombing campaigns but within the destructive range of the GBU-57 bunker buster bombs, which only the B-2 can carry.
Threats of retaliation
If the ongoing fighting in the Middle East were to spread, many of these installations and vessels in the region could be at risk. Many were targeted by pro-Iran militias inside Iraq over the last two years, as regional violence picked up as the Israeli war in Gaza began. In his own warning amid back-and-forth threats, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, posted to social media this week that “The harm the U.S. will suffer will definitely be irreparable if they enter this conflict militarily.”
During the two stages of fighting around Yemen over the past 20 months, Houthis repeatedly fired one-way attack drones and missiles towards Navy ships, which were all intercepted. Meanwhile, several militias active in Syria and Iraq fired multiple barrages of rockets and drones at various American and coalition bases in multiple countries in the area. Dozens were injured, including receiving traumatic brain injuries as a result. The dangers of shorter-ranged attacks were already proven last year, when three Army reserve soldiers were killed at Tower 22 in Jordan and several more were injured.
Given the rise in small rocket and drone barrages on bases in the regions, troops deploying to the Middle East have begun training on simulators on how to respond to such an attack.
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