Amid rising tensions and rumors of an imminent strike, the US has gathered a dozen military ships in Middle Eastern waters and may be preparing for a bloody, extended confrontation with the Iranian regime.
Flight-tracking data shows that tanker planes, fighter jets, and other US military aircraft have been repositioned in recent days, including advanced F-35s, which can evade radar detection.
The current US arsenal in the area includes two destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea, one in the Red Sea, four in the Persian Gulf, and an aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, accompanied by four destroyers in the Arabian Sea. Another carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, also arrived in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, accompanied by warships.
The US also possesses established military infrastructure scattered across multiple countries, including bases containing fighter jets, drones, and helicopters in Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and the UAE.
Altogether, the US and Israel's combined military forces would have an "overwhelming advantage" over Iran, a former US ambassador to Israel and senior Pentagon official during the Biden administration, Daniel B. Shapiro, told the Washington Post.
Extended war with Iran expected to be messy
However, Shapiro added that a potential war with Iran would be far from an easy affair.
“They’ll definitely take terrible damage from combined US-Israeli strikes,” he said, "But that doesn’t mean it ends quickly, or clean - and they do have some ability to impose some costs in the other direction.”
Another diplomat, speaking anonymously, stated that an extended conflict would be concerning to many countries in the area. While some officials in Saudi Arabia or the UAE may have wanted targeted strikes to increase pressure on Iran, the diplomat said, "an extended conflict will be bloody, and it could bring more countries, either deliberately or by miscalculation, into the war.”
Jason Dempsey, a retired Army officer who studies the use of military force for the Center for a New American Security, summed up the potential risks of an extended war between the US and Iran: “Military operations look quick and easy - right until they are not.”