WASHINGTON – Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has ordered thedeployment of more MIM-104 Patriot missile defense systems to the MiddleEast due to increasing tensions between the US and Iran.
A Pentagon statement on Friday said Shanahan had send the USS Arlington, aSan Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, along with a batteryof Patriot missiles and auxiliary equipment to US Central Command(CENTCOM), the command division covering US forces in southwest Asia andnortheastern Africa. The Arlington is currently in Europe.
“The Department of Defense continues to closely monitor the activitiesof the Iranian regime, their military and proxies,” a Pentagon statementsaid.
The move follows sales worth $6 billion of the mobile surface-to-airmissile system to both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain earlier thisweek. Both countries are small US allies in the Persian Gulf and housemajor US military bases just a couple of dozen miles from Iranian territory.
Last month, the US also tested out the rapid deployment capabilities of itsTerminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) crews, another SAM system thatprioritizes interception of ballistic missiles. The US sent 250servicemembers to Israel’s Nevatim Airbase to drill them on their abilityto “rapidly surge combat-ready forces into and across the theater,” DeputyCommander of the US Army in Europe Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Rowling said at thetime.
The US has already deployed a carrier strike group and a bomber task forceto the region in response to what Washington says are growing threatsfrom Iran. Last month, US President Donald Trump declared Iran’s eliteparamilitary force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to be aterrorist organization, the first time a uniformed state armed force hasreceived the designation. Iranian leaders have vowed not to backdown before US chest-beating, noting they could, among other things, closethe Strait of Hormuz at a moment’s notice. The waterway handles one fifthof the world’s seaborne petroleum. Sputnik