US deploys fighter jets, ships to the Middle East as Israel-Iran conflict escalates
Trump's social media posts saying his patience with Iran was 'wearing thin" have raised the possibility of deepening US involvement, perhaps by using its bunker-busting bomb to strike a key Iranian nuclear site built deep underground in the mountains.
Israel doesn't have the massive munition it would take to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, or the aircraft needed to deliver it. Only the US does.
As America's national security leaders discuss the next steps, the Pentagon has moved to ensure that its troops and bases in the region are protected.
Here's a look at the US military presence in the Middle East:
In a social media post, Trump warned that 'we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran".
US officials insisted as of Tuesday that the American military has not taken any offensive actions against Iran, only defensive strikes to take out incoming Iranian missiles to protect Israel.
Additional US fighter jets and refueling tankers have been deployed to the region, but officials have declined to provide specific numbers. Fighter jets have joined in launching strikes to defend Israel, but officials said Tuesday that no American aircraft were over Iran.
Aurora Intel, a group that reviews open source information in real time in the Middle East, said the US Air Force had put additional refueling aircraft and fighter jets in strategic locations across Europe, including England, Spain, Germany and Greece. The information was obtained from public aviation tracking websites.
US fighter jets have been patrolling the skies around the Middle East to protect personnel and installations, and bases in the region are on heightened alert and are taking additional security precautions, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has not provided any details, but said on Fox News Channel late Monday that the military movements were to 'ensure that our people are safe".
American warships also are shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles targeting Israel, with the USS The Sullivans and the USS Arleigh Burke launching strikes over the weekend.
The Sullivans has been joined in the Eastern Mediterranean by the USS Thomas Hudner this week to continue those defense strikes, while the Arleigh Burke has moved away from the area, according to a US official.
The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier is in the Arabian Sea with the four warships in its strike group. They are not participating in the defence of Israel. But they are positioned to provide security for US troops and bases along the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.
The USS Nimitz has been long scheduled to take over for the Carl Vinson and is heading west from the Indo-Pacific region toward the Middle East. The official said it is slated to arrive in the region by the end of the month, and the two carriers would likely overlap at least for a short time before the Vinson heads home to San Diego.
There also are destroyers in the Red Sea, and others are based in the Western Mediterranean and participating in exercises in the Baltic Sea.
The forces in the region have been taking precautionary measures for days, including having military dependents voluntarily leave bases, in anticipation of potential strikes and to protect personnel in case of a large-scale response from Tehran.
Officials said they were not aware of many families actually leaving.
Typically around 30,000 troops are based in the Middle East, and about 40,000 troops are in the region now, according to a US official.
That number surged as high as 43,000 last October in response to heightened tensions between Israel and Iran as well as continuous attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.
The Air Force's B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is the only aircraft that can carry the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, known as the bunker buster.
The powerful bomb uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets – and then explode.
There are currently no B-2 bombers in the Middle East region, although there are B-52 bombers based at Diego Garcia, and they can deliver smaller munitions.
If tapped for use, the B-2 bombers would have to make the 30-hour round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, refueling multiple times.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
War in Ukraine live: NATO military chiefs set for talks on Ukraine security guarantees
The military chiefs of staff of NATO's 32 member countries are set to hold a video meeting Wednesday to discuss "the current security environment" in Ukraine as diplomatic efforts to procure a peace deal progress. The US has said it would help guarantee Ukraine's security in the event of a peace deal with Russia, although the details of the guarantee are so far unclear. Follow our liveblog for the latest updates. Key points from yesterday: US President Donald Trump told Ukraine 's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday that the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia 's war there, though the extent of any assistance was not immediately clear. Sources familiar with a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Russian leader suggested holding potential peace talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Moscow, to which Zelensky said "no". Other sources said the White House is eyeing the Hungarian capital of Budapest as a venue for a possible trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky. Meanwhile, Switzerland said it would grant Putin immunity from prosecution if he came to the country for talks on peace in Ukraine.
France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
Trump renews attacks on Smithsonian over focus on 'how bad slavery was'
US President Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday he will pressure the Smithsonian Institution – a premier museum, education and research complex for US history and culture – to accept his demands, just as he did with colleges and universities by threatening to cut federal funding. In a social media post, Trump complained about what he called excessive focus on "how bad Slavery was". "I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made," Trump said on Truth Social. The Smithsonian, which was established in 1846 and includes 21 museums and galleries and the National Zoo, had no immediate comment. Most of its museums are in Washington, D.C. The White House said last week it will lead an internal review of some Smithsonian museums after Trump earlier this year accused it of spreading "anti-American ideology" and raised alarm among civil rights advocates. When asked if Trump would threaten funding cuts to the Smithsonian based on the findings, a White House official said "President Trump will explore all options and avenues to get the Woke out of the Smithsonian and hold them accountable." Trump wrote: "The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future." The Smithsonian receives most of its budget from the US Congress but is independent of the government in decision-making. Civil rights advocates say Trump's administration is undoing decades of social progress and undermining the acknowledgement of critical phases of American history. Racial justice group Black Lives Matter said on X that Trump's post showed that he wanted to lock the country in a "fairytale" and deny the atrocities of slavery. Trump has made threats to cut federal funding of top US educational institutions, citing pro-Palestinian protests against US ally Israel's war in Gaza, transgender policies, climate initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Last month, the government settled its probes with Columbia University, which agreed to pay $221 million, and Brown University, which said it will pay $50 million. Both institutions accepted certain government demands. Talks to settle with Harvard University are ongoing.
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
Allies to push for the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia
When Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin in Alaska last Friday, he brought the Russian president a rare message from the US first lady. Melania Trump sent a personal letter to Russia's president asking him to 'protect the innocence of children'. Although the letter had no direct reference to Russia's raging war against Ukraine, it was widely perceived as an act of soft power diplomacy from the US first lady regarding one of the most heartbreaking aspects of Moscow's full-scale invasion — the forceful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. Ukraine has been able to verify Russia's deportation of over 19,500 children to date. Only over 1,350 have been returned, and each return is mediated by a third-party state, notably by Qatar, South Africa and the Vatican. The actual figure is likely to be much higher. Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab placed the number of deported Ukrainian children closer to 35,000. Moscow claimed that the number could be as high as 700,000. Mariana Betsa, deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, told Euronews, 'We are grateful for President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump's recognition and focus on ensuring the return of Ukrainian children, as this is central to any peace negotiations." "In particular, First Lady Zelenska is very grateful for First Lady Trump highlighting the issue to President Trump directly," Betsa said. At the start of his meeting with Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US first lady for sending it, and said she had been appealing to Putin 'about our children, abducted' during Russia's war. Zelenskyy then handed a visibly surprised US president a follow-up letter from Olena Zelenska to deliver to Melania Trump. The content of the letter has not been disclosed, but the US president praised his wife's love for children and said she was deeply concerned by images of children suffering. 'She sees the heartbreak, the parents, the funerals that you see on television, always funerals,' Trump said. 'We want to see something other than funerals.' Ukrainian authorities have been insisting that the return of Ukrainian children is a non-negotiable aspect of any possible deal to put an end to Russia's war against Ukraine, and probably for the first time, this message has been clearly and loudly echoed by Kyiv's allies in the US and Europe. 'Every child should be unconditionally returned back home' Children are always the most vulnerable victims of armed conflict, Betsa told Euronews. 'In Russia's war, Ukrainian children have not only undergone trauma and displacement they have also suffered systemic deportation, illegal adoption and forced assimilation,' she explained. During the Istanbul talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul, Ukraine handed over to Russia a list of its forcefully deported children. Kyiv wants Moscow to return them to Ukraine, reiterating its commitment to bring the forcefully deported children back as one of the key aspects of a possible ceasefire and a peace deal in the long term. The head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov said, 'If Russia is genuinely committed to a peace process, the return of at least half the children on this list is positive'. The Russian delegation chief Vladimir Medinsky showed the list, which contains the names of 339 abducted Ukrainian children. More than two months later, Moscow still has not responded, Betsa told Euronews. 'Despite three rounds of talks in Istanbul where Ukraine presented a modest starting point of 339 names to test Russian good faith, Russia's delegation has met Ukrainian appeals with silence, evasion and scorn.' Having received the list, the Kremlin representative accused Ukraine of "staging a show on the topic of lost children aimed at kind-hearted Europeans." In his words, Kyiv is trying to "squeeze out a tear by raising this issue." During the Monday talks in the White House, the issue was at the top of the agenda for Zelenskyy and Trump, as well as for the European leaders. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, 'As a mother and grandmother, every single child has to go back to its family." "This should be one of our main priorities also in these negotiations, to make sure that the children come back to Ukraine, to their families." In fact, Trump praised von der Leyen for her leadership on the issue of missing children, which he described as a "worldwide" problem. In a post on Truth Social, the US president shared their discussions on this tragic aspect of Russia's war against Ukraine, saying, "It is a subject at the top of all lists, and the World will work together to solve it, hopefully bringing them home to their families!". Recently, 40 countries issued a joint statement calling on Russia to immediately and unconditionally return forcibly deported Ukrainian children, Ukraine's deputy foreign minister said, adding, 'President Trump's comments reaffirm this clear and united message: the return of Ukrainian children without delay or conditions is non-negotiable.' 'The suffering of children is one of the most unbearable tragedies of this war. We highly value President Trump and our European partners' longstanding support in locating and returning Ukraine's children." "We will not stop until every child is back where they belong: with their families, in their homeland, safe and free.' Euronews recently reported that Russia-installed occupation authorities in Ukraine's Luhansk region created an online 'catalogue' of Ukrainian children, offering them for coerced 'adoption' through the education department. The database includes 294 Ukrainian children, who are sorted and categorised so that the users can 'filter' them by age, gender and physical traits, like eyes and hair colour. Betsa says up to 1.6 million Ukrainian children still remain in the temporarily occupied territories at this time. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes because of his involvement in the abductions of children from Ukraine. The court said in a statement that Putin 'is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.' The arrest warrant places Putin at risk of detention in any of the ICC's 124 members if he steps onto their territory.
