Trump now has the firepower in place, but using it might not end well
A fortnight ago, when Donald Trump first threatened Iran’s regime, telling protesters in the country that “help is coming”, there were not enough US military assets in the Middle East to back up the rhetoric. That has now changed, although plenty of questions remain about what an attack on Iran could achieve.
An aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, has arrived in the Indian Ocean, dispatched from the South China Sea alongside three destroyers equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles. Its eight-squadron air wing includes F-35C and F/A-18 jets and, critically, EA-18G Growlers to suppress anything that is left of Iran’s air defences after last year’s war with Israel.
Open-source monitors have spotted transport planes bringing what they believe to be US air defence systems to the Gulf. That is in line with reports that Patriot and Thaad antimissile batteries would be deployed to protect US bases from any Iranian drone and missile counterattack against military sites in the region.
On top of that, squadrons of F-15 fighters – an estimated 35 planes – have been redeployed from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk to Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan. It had been intended for the F-15s to be flown back to the US, but now they have been deployed as extra defensive cover for Israel, Jordan, Iraq and the region if the conflict escalates.
