U.S. Amassing Aircraft Carriers, Fighter Jets, Navy Destroyers & Thousands of Troops to Protect Israel

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Friday ordered additional combat aircraft and missile-shooting warships to the Middle East in response to threats from Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen to attack Israel in the coming days to avenge the death of Ismail Haniyeh, the Pentagon said.

The military will send one additional squadron of Air Force F-22 fighter jets, an unspecified number of additional Navy cruisers and destroyers capable of intercepting ballistic missiles, and, if needed, more land-based ballistic-missile defense systems.

To maintain the presence of an aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships in the region, Mr. Austin also directed the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, now in the eastern Pacific, to relieve the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the next couple of weeks when it is scheduled to return home.

Some ships already in the western Mediterranean Sea will move east, closer to the coast of Israel to provide more security, a senior Pentagon official said.

"Secretary Austin has ordered adjustments to U.S. military posture designed to improve U.S. force protection, to increase support for the defense of Israel and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies," Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.

[...] Ms. Singh, in a news conference earlier on Friday, had raised the possibility that the United States could also send additional troops to operate whatever additional capabilities the Pentagon sends to the region. [...]

She said that during a telephone call Mr. Austin held with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, on Friday morning, Mr. Austin "committed" that the United States would help Israel in its defense. "We will be bolstering our force protection in the region," she said.

[...] In addition to some 80 land-based combat aircraft, the Pentagon has already deployed more than a dozen warships in the region. The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, equipped with about 40 F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-35 attack planes, is now steaming near the Arabian Gulf, while the U.S.S. Wasp amphibious ready group, with 30 airplanes and helicopters as well as 4,500 Marines and sailors, is operating in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

"These reports over the last 24, 48 hours certainly don't help with the temperature going down," John Kirby, the White House National Security Council communications adviser, told reporters. "We're obviously concerned about escalation."

[...] "All of this adds to the complicated nature of what we're trying to get done," he said Wednesday during the White House press briefing. "What we're trying to get done is a cease-fire deal that can get you six weeks in phase one, a lot of hostages, the most at risk, out of there and with their families again. And get some more humanitarian assistance in there."

"When you have events, traumatic events, violent events caused by whatever, it certainly doesn't make the task of achieving that outcome any easier," Kirby added.