U.S. shifts military resources in Mideast after Israel strikes on Iran and Iran’s response
FILE – The future USS Thomas Hudner, a U.S. Navy destroyer named after Korean War veteran Thomas Hudner, during christening ceremony at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, April 1, 2017. The ship was commissioned, Dec. 1, 2018 in Boston. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm, File)
The U.S. is shifting military resources, including ships, in the Middle East in response to Israel’s strikes on Iran and Iran’s drone response.
Israel launched a blistering attack on the heart of Iran’s nuclear and military structure, deploying warplanes and drones smuggled into the country to target key facilities and kill top generals and scientists — a barrage it said was necessary before its adversary got any closer to building an atomic weapon.
The operation raised the potential for all-out war between the countries and propelled the region, already on edge, into even greater upheaval.
Iran quickly retaliated, sending a swarm of drones at Israel as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of “severe punishment.” Iran had been censured by the U.N.’s atomic watchdog a day earlier for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
The Navy has directed the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, which is capable of defending against ballistic missiles, to begin sailing from the western Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern Mediterranean and has directed a second destroyer to begin moving forward so it can be available if requested by the White House.
President Donald Trump is meeting with his National Security Council principals today to discuss the situation. The U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.
The forces in the region have been taking precautionary measures for days, including having military dependents voluntarily depart regional bases, in anticipation of the strikes and to protect those personnel in case of a large-scale response from Tehran.
Typically around 30,000 troops are based in the Middle East, and about 40,000 troops are in the region now, according to a third U.S. official. That number surged as high as 43,000 last October amid the ongoing 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 Navy has additional assets that it could surge to the Middle East if needed, particularly its aircraft carriers and the warships that sail with them. The USS Carl Vinson is in the Arabian Sea — the only aircraft carrier in the region.
The carrier USS Nimitz is in the Indo-Pacific and could be directed toward the Middle East if needed, and the USS George Washington just left its port in Japan and could be directed to the region if so ordered, one of the officials said.
Then-President Joe Biden initially surged ships to protect Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas that launched the war in Gaza. It was seen as a deterrent against Hezbollah and Iran at the time.
On Oct. 1, 2024, U.S. Navy destroyers fired about a dozen interceptors in defense of Israel as the country came under attack by more than 200 missiles fired by Iran.
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