US military muscle in the Middle East. Aircraft carriers, stealth jets, destroyers, and thousands of troops form the backbone of strikes against Iran
WASHINGTON: The massive US military presence in the Middle East, including warships, fighter jets, and refueling aircraft, lays the foundation for a major campaign against Iran.
Below, AFP examines key US military assets deployed in the region, after Washington launched strikes that President Donald Trump said were targeting Tehran’s naval and missile forces.
Ships
Washington currently has more than a dozen warships in the Middle East, including one aircraft carrier — the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is operating in the Arabian Sea — nine destroyers and three littoral combat ships.
The USS Gerald R. Ford — the world’s largest carrier — is deployed in the Mediterranean Sea along with several more destroyers. The carrier took on food, fuel and ammunition at Souda Bay on the island of Crete earlier this week, then left port on Thursday. Satellite imagery showed it several hundred miles west of the Israeli port of Haifa the following day.
Both carriers are crewed by thousands of sailors and have air wings comprised of dozens of warplanes. It is rare to have two of the massive warships in the Middle East at the same time.
Aircraft
In addition to the aircraft on the carriers, the United States has sent dozens of other warplanes to the Middle East, according to open-source intelligence accounts on X, flight-tracking website Flightradar24 and media reports.
These include F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning stealth fighter jets, F-15 and F-16 warplanes, and the KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft that are needed to sustain their operations.
Air defenses
The United States has also reportedly boosted its land-based air defenses in the Middle East, while the numerous guided-missile destroyers in the region provide air defense capabilities at sea.
US forces on bases
While ground forces are not expected to take part in offensive action against Iran, the United States has tens of thousands of military personnel on bases in the Middle East that are potentially vulnerable to a counterattack.
Tehran launched missiles at a US base in Qatar after Washington struck three Iranian nuclear sites in June 2025, but they were shot down by air defenses.
 The Sun Malaysia
