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Before Any Strike on Iran, U.S. Needs to Bolster Air Defenses in Mideast
(Wall Street Journal) Lara Seligman - American airstrikes on Iran aren't imminent, U.S. officials say, because the Pentagon is moving in additional air defenses to better protect Israel, Arab allies, and American forces in the event of a retaliation by Iran and a potential prolonged conflict. The U.S. military could conduct limited airstrikes on Iran if the president were to order an attack today, but the kind of decisive attack that Trump has asked the military to prepare would likely prompt a response from Iran, requiring the U.S. to have robust air defenses in place. The Pentagon is deploying an additional THAAD battery and Patriot air defenses to bases where U.S. troops are stationed across the Middle East, including Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. "The air defense question is key - the extent to which we have sufficient materiel to ensure that our troops and assets in the region are going to be protected from some kind of Iranian retaliation," said Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department official on Iran policy. The U.S. has deployed three squadrons of F-15E fighters to Jordan, which could play a role in shooting down Iranian drones. Those fighters targeted Iranian drones when Tehran attacked Israel in April 2024 in what the U.S. Air Force called the "largest air-to-air enemy engagement in over 50 years." The U.S. now has eight destroyers within range to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones, including two near the Strait of Hormuz, three in the North Arabian Sea, one near Israel in the Red Sea, and two in the Eastern Mediterranean.