Is the United States ready to strike Iran? The Wall Street Journal says US forces are still not prepared to deliver the kind of blow President Donald Trump has asked for, partly because of a shortage of air defense assets for Washington's regional allies, including Israel.
The "armada" promised by US President Donald Trump has arrived in the Middle East, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, with advanced F-35 fighter jets moving closer to the region. Trump has not said whether or how he might use force. But US airstrikes on Iran are not expected to take place, American officials say, because the Pentagon is bringing in additional air defenses to better protect Israel, Arab allies and US forces in the event of Iranian retaliation and a potentially prolonged conflict.
The US military could carry out limited airstrikes on Iran if the president ordered an attack today, American officials say. However, the kind of decisive strike Trump has asked the military to prepare would likely trigger a proportional response from Iran, which would require the United States to run a robust air defense effort to protect Israel as well as US forces, the officials said.
The military already has air defense assets in the region, including destroyers capable of countering aerial threats. Even so, the Pentagon is deploying an additional THAAD battery and Patriot air defense systems at bases hosting US troops across the Middle East, including in Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to defense officials, flight tracking data and satellite imagery.
THAAD interceptors can shoot down ballistic missiles above the Earth's atmosphere, while Patriot missiles defend against lower-altitude and shorter-range threats. "The air defense question is the key, the extent to which we have enough material to ensure that our troops and assets in the region are protected against any kind of Iranian retaliation," said Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department official for Iran policy in the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
While reports of this kind could represent deliberate US misdirection ahead of a potential strike on the ayatollahs' regime, a certain shortage in components for US-made air defense systems has been recorded in recent years. This has been driven by the transfer of Patriot batteries and missiles and NASAMS systems to the Ukrainian military, as well as procurement of these systems by various US allies.
