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Bases reshaped by strikes
Iran’s attacks on U.S. military facilities in the Gulf have pushed Washington to reconsider how it positions forces, with a Financial Times report by Jacob Judah saying the U.S. presence relied for nearly four decades on a network of large military bases across Gulf states.
“Iran utilized short-range missiles and drones to target U.S. facilities”
The report said Iran used short-range missiles and drones to target U.S. facilities, exposing the vulnerability of massive bases near the Iranian coastline and driving Washington to shift troops and aircraft to locations further out of reach, including Israel and Jordan.
Hal Brands, a scholar at Johns Hopkins University, said large, static military bases have become highly vulnerable to attacks and expects a redirection of the U.S. military footprint away from the Gulf and away from bases within the range of short-range missiles and drones.
DW, citing the Financial Times, said the Iran war exposed the fragility of bases close to the Iranian coastline and quoted Brands saying, "These facilities, especially the large bases, are extremely fragile."
DW also reported that Dana Stroul, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, told the Financial Times that the design of current Gulf bases "harks back to a bygone era and is no longer suitable for the nature of modern wars."
Trump, sanctions, and escalation
As the conflict between the United States and Iran continues, U.S. President Donald Trump said he does not believe Iran is ready to strike the “right deal,” and told reporters, “That simply means we are watching what is happening.”
Reuters reported that Washington last week threatened the toughest financial sanctions ever aimed at toppling the Iranian leadership, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would announce on Monday details of the planned sanctions after Trump warned of economic consequences for any country that provides “any form of vital support to Iran.”
In the same Reuters account, Trump said, “We have complete control over the entire region with respect to the Hormuz Strait, and that means our control over vast land areas.”
Al Jazeera said the United States and Iran exchanged a new round of attacks described as the biggest in more than a month, with the U.S. Central Command saying it struck dozens of military targets along Iran’s southern coast.
Al Jazeera also reported Trump told Fox News that if Iran retaliates against U.S. attacks, “they’ll be hit much harder,” and said Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles towards Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
What comes next for Gulf posture
The Financial Times report described a strategic choice for Washington between spending billions of dollars to rebuild damaged facilities or fundamentally reconsidering its entire military posture in the Middle East, as it said the Pentagon did not incorporate repair expenses into its formal cost projections for the conflict with Iran.
“the Pentagon did not incorporate these expenses into its formal cost projections”
It added that the U.S. moved troops and equipment into Israel and Jordan over the past six months and operated aircraft and drones out of European bases positioned beyond the reach of Iran’s short-range weaponry, while warning that Iran could adapt to U.S. realignments.
The report said U.S. Central Command had begun testing new operational models, including dispersing soldiers across smaller combat positions and rapidly maneuvering fighter jets between temporary runways and locations.
Al Jazeera reported that Iran said its strikes target military bases used by the United States in the war, and that Iran’s military said it launched attacks on U.S. bases and assets in Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq’s Erbil.
In Kuwait, the Kuwaiti army said in a post on X that “Our air defenses are currently repelling hostile missile and drone attacks,” as the escalation unfolded around U.S. basing in the region.