Pentagon Boosts Middle East Presence as Israel and Iran Exchange Blows

The Pentagon is expanding its military presence in the Middle East and Europe in response to worsening hostilities between Israel and Iran, U.S. officials said Monday, sending refueling planes and an additional aircraft carrier among the resources dispatched.

More than two dozen tanker planes were deployed from the United States to Europe on Sunday and Monday, a movement that U.S. officials linked to commanders’ desire for options should American facilities near the warring countries face a direct threat. Flight-tracking data shows the refueling aircraft along with some heavy transport jets took off from points across the U.S. and landed hours later at air bases in Spain, Greece, Germany, Italy and Scotland. Among them were KC-135 Stratotankers and KC-46 Pegasuses.

The move puts those aircraft closer to the Middle East to defend U.S. interests if needed, said one official familiar with the discussion, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity.

The Navy, meanwhile, has canceled a port stop in Vietnam for the USS Nimitz, sending that aircraft carrier and other warships escorting it to the Middle East more quickly than had been expected, defense officials said. The Nimitz, carrying about 5,000 sailors and dozens of fighter jets, on Monday was making its way west through the Strait of Malacca and is expected to head across the Indian Ocean to join U.S. warships already in the Middle East.

Additional fighter jets also are expected to deploy as part of the response, defense officials said, though it was not immediately clear what kind or where they will go.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement posted to X on Monday that he “directed the deployment of additional capabilities” to the Middle East. “Protecting U.S. forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region,” the statement said, without specifying what kinds of forces he sent.

The moves come after Israel launched a wave of attacks last week against Iran’s nuclear weapons program , triggering Iranian counterattacks and continued bloodshed on both sides since then. The Israeli strikes occurred early Friday as President Donald Trump tried to secure a deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, short-circuiting those negotiations, and have since expanded to target military commanders, state media and Iran’s energy infrastructure.

The president, writing on social media Monday evening, chastised Iranian leaders for not accepting “the ‘deal’ I told them to sign” before warning, “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran,” the country’s capital.

While Trump and other senior U.S. officials have said that the United States is not participating in the strikes, Washington is supporting Israel in other ways, including fending off Iranian attacks. U.S. defense officials said Friday that American ballistic missile defense systems, such as Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), were involved in taking down Iranian drones and missiles.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a news conference Monday that American pilots also are targeting Iranian drones. Netanyahu said he was in regular contact with Trump. He said in a separate interview with ABC News that he would not rule out targeting Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, something that would mark another drastic escalation in the conflict.

A spokesman with U.S. Central Command, which oversees military activity in the Middle East, referred questions about the U.S. military taking down Iranian drones to the White House, which did not respond to requests for comment. Sean Parnell and Kingsley Wilson, spokespeople for Hegseth, also did not respond to requests for comment.

The Pentagon maintains a sprawling set of defenses in the region. They include the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which is in the Arabian Sea with the guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton and the destroyers USS Milius, USS Sterett and USS Wayne E. Meyer, defense officials said.

Two additional destroyers, the USS Truxtun and USS Forrest Sherman, are in the Red Sea, while the littoral combat ship USS Canberra arrived in port in Bahrain late last month .

The Navy has three additional destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea. They are the USS Sullivans, the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Thomas Hudner. The Thomas Hudner was in the western Mediterranean when the military strikes on Iran began last week, and has since relocated to the eastern side of the Mediterranean, closer to Israel, defense officials said.

Retired Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, a former head of U.S. Central Command, said it appears to him that Israel could be pursuing regime change in Iran and that early successes in the campaign seem to have emboldened Israeli officials.

“I think this is going to continue for a while,” McKenzie said, speaking on a call with reporters organized by the Middle East Institute. “I don’t think there’s any motivation for Israel to end this right yet.”

It’s noteworthy, he added, that Iran has so far avoided attacking U.S. bases in the region or carrying out other acts, such as mining the Strait of Hormuz, that could draw the United States directly into the conflict.

Several Democrats in Congress raised concerns that Trump could unilaterally choose to enter the war without seeking approval, as the Constitution mandates.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), filed legislation to that effect, underscoring the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and other statutes that define the terms under which the U.S. can go to war. He is “deeply concerned,” he said, that recent escalation between Israel and Iran “could quickly pull the United States into another endless conflict.”

The resolution’s fate is uncertain. Republicans control both chambers of Congress, and few have shown willingness to speak out against the president or take action that would curtail his authority, even as the GOP broadly is opposed to involving the United States in a new foreign war. Though Iran has long been a target of Republican hard-liners and pro-Israel lobbyists, many in the GOP are likely to oppose any direct action against Tehran that would put American service members at risk.