Iranian Strikes Push Pentagon to Rethink Gulf Basing

Attacks on US Positions

Iran has fired thousands of drones and missiles at US bases and forces across the Gulf region since the war began in late February, the Jerusalem Post reported. The strikes also hit US intelligence posts and hardware, causing billions of dollars in damage, according to an NBC report cited by the paper and based on four people with knowledge of the matter.

NBC said the targets included a CIA station in Riyadh, a site in eastern Iraq, and radar and surveillance equipment elsewhere in the region. Some of those sites and that equipment are shared with the US military. The CIA, the State Department and the White House did not respond to NBC's request for comment.

Two of the sources said Congress has had to allocate funding for repairs. The report described the war as an unprecedented threat to the CIA and other US intelligence agencies, and said it raised questions inside the US military about its ability to defend its own assets.

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Air Defence Losses

In the first days of Operation Epic Fury, Iran targeted multiple US air defence battery radars, the Jerusalem Post said, citing satellite imagery and photographs spread online. That material showed a destroyed AN/TPY-2 radar system in Jordan and a destroyed AN/FPS-12 phased array radar in Qatar.

Damaged systems were also recorded in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington research institute, estimated in a July report that about 65 percent of Patriot interceptors had been expended between February and July, and that US stockpiles of THAAD ballistic missile interceptors were at least 38 percent lower than at the start of the war. Both systems are built to detect and destroy incoming missiles.

Pentagon Rethink

The Defense Department is exploring a broader reduction of its forces in the Persian Gulf, Responsible Statecraft reported, citing Pentagon planning described by the Washington Post. Units, command centres and aerial capabilities would shift west towards Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, trading large fixed bases for small hardened positions.

The Post reported that the Pentagon views the destruction caused by the Iranian attacks as a "once-in-a-generation chance" to rethink American force posture rather than simply rebuild it. Responsible Statecraft said no final decision has been taken, and that the plan falls well short of a US withdrawal.

President Donald Trump congratulated Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan for signing the Mecca Pact, calling it a "BIG, BOLD, IMPORTANT FIRST STEP". The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace argued separately that the US basing system has been wrecked by Iranian missiles and that states in the region should welcome faster American disengagement.

Open Questions

The available reporting does not identify the individual Iranian missile or drone models used in the attacks, and gives no total damage figure beyond "billions of dollars".

It is also not yet known when, or whether, the Pentagon will approve the redeployment.