The United States has sharply increased its military presence near Iran, moving more than 150 fighter jets to bases in Europe and the Middle East after the second round of nuclear talks concluded without result on February 17, according to flight data and satellite imagery reviewed by The Washington Post.
According to the report, the current presence of U.S. military forces in the region is among the largest in the past two decades, dating back to the period before the Iraq War in 2003. The buildup follows President Donald Trump’s threat to strike Iran if no agreement is reached to limit Tehran’s nuclear program, though he has not specified the targets of such an attack. Iranian officials have said that a deal is possible, but that reaching one will take time.
Exceeds June mobilization
Experts who examined the deployment note that it surpasses the mobilization preceding U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear program in June of last year. According to them, the assets being assembled point to a multi-day campaign without a ground invasion.
Dozens of additional aircraft are aboard the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which was spotted Monday off the coast of Crete. It is the second aircraft carrier sent to the Middle East, and its arrival means that roughly one-third of all active U.S. Navy ships are now in the region.
Dana Stroul, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East and current research director at the Washington Institute, said that “the enormous level of power that has been assembled means the U.S. military can carry out whatever Trump decides — from a prolonged, high-intensity campaign to more targeted, limited strikes.”
If the administration is planning a sustained air campaign lasting weeks, even more military assets will be required, according to Mark Cancian, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Major flow of forces to the Middle East
Pentagon officials acknowledged the large flow of U.S. forces to the Middle East but declined to comment on details, citing operational security reasons.
More than half of the newly deployed U.S. aircraft landed at bases in Europe, according to satellite imagery and flight-tracking data. By stationing them in Eastern Europe — out of range of most Iranian missiles and not at Gulf bases — the U.S. can strategically position equipment or personnel without offering Iran an “attractive target,” said Gregory Brew, senior Iran analyst at Eurasia Group.
Transport and refueling aircraft
The vast majority of aircraft appearing in flight data are transport and refueling planes. Fighter jets often disable their tracking signals, making them harder to monitor unless captured in satellite imagery.
Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan has become a key destination for U.S. air assets arriving in the region. Satellite images from Friday show more than 60 military aircraft there. Among them, over a dozen F-35 fighters are lined up on the runway. These aircraft are often used to neutralize enemy air defenses, clearing a safer path for other fighters. The advanced stealth aircraft also has electronic warfare capabilities.
According to flight data and independent analysis by researcher Stefan Watkins, the U.S. has in recent days deployed more than one-third of its active fleet of E-3G Sentry early warning aircraft to Europe and the Middle East. Equipped with a large rotating radar dome, the E-3G can detect targets and conduct all-weather surveillance, providing real-time awareness of airspace activity.
Dozens of warplanes at European airports
As The Washington Post reports, dozens of warplanes have been photographed in recent days at airports across Europe. Photos posted online show twelve F-22A Raptors at RAF Lakenheath in the United Kingdom and at least one F-16 Fighting Falcon landing in the Azores.
Video recorded from the window of a passenger aircraft at Chania airport and posted on TikTok on Saturday shows at least ten additional F-35s among other fighters. Refueling aircraft and at least one reconnaissance plane have arrived at the airport since February 17, according to flight data and satellite imagery.
Dozens more aircraft, including electronic warfare assets, are aboard the aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln, sailing off the coast of Oman since early February, and USS Gerald R. Ford, operating near Crete. Both carriers are escorted by guided-missile destroyers carrying dozens of Tomahawk missiles — the type of weapon U.S. forces used to strike Iranian nuclear targets in June.
“Whatever the administration wants to do with Iran, it wants to do it on a large scale, but relatively quickly and with minimal risk of retaliation or negative consequences,” Brew said.
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