US military airplanes have stolen more than 70 Pacific equipment charges in the Middle East, moving a Patriot Air Defense Battalion from a priority theater to the Treed Region, a high-level commander said on Thursday.
The recent relocation of the high-level air defense system comes in the middle of a broader accumulation of American military assets in the Middle East, including planes and warships. Tensions with Iran and Houthi rebels in Yemen are high.
During the testimony of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the administrator Sam Paparo, who leads the command of the American Indo-Pacific, was questioned about the abilities of the army capacities that exist in his theater.
He distinguished cargo lift as an area of concern.
“For example,” said Paparo, “after moving a patriotic battalion in Centcom Aor, it took 73 C-17 charges to move” this battalion. He referred to the American central command, which oversees the Middle East region. “Our lift requirements must be paid for attention,” he told legislators.
A C-17 transport aircraft of Boeing C-17 can transport around 170,000 pounds of cargo, with a maximum takeoff of 585,000 pounds. The American army has more than 200 of these planes through the armed forces.
A US Air Force C-17 Globemaster II landed in Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan. US Air Force Photo by Yasuo Osakabe
The MIM-104 Patriot is a system of air surface missiles that has been in service since the 1980s and is considered one of the most advanced air defense systems that the United States operates.
The American army has 15 battalions and previously deployed them in the Middle East.
A battalion consists of four batteries, each including a radar, a control station and up to eight launchers which can individually contain four interceptors missiles.
Paparo did not develop the Patriot movement. However, during an armed services committee of the Chamber hearing the day before, an exchange between the representative of the Massachusetts Seth Moulton and General Xavier Brunson, the Commander of the American forces of Korea, said that the batteries came from the Korean peninsula.
We do not know where in the Middle East the Patriot battalion is deployed, but the movement intervenes in the middle of the renewed tensions in the region.
Israel has resumed its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, and the United States has made air strikes against Houthis for more than three weeks to try to make the Yemeni rebels finally stop their Red Sea attacks.
A patriotic launcher, one of the many components that make up an entire battalion. Photo of the American army by the SGT. Alexandra Shea
Meanwhile, the Trump administration pressure on Iran in a new nuclear agreement, the president threatening military action against Tehran if the two opponents cannot reach an agreement.
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In early April, the Pentagon said that it extended the deployment of the Middle East of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and sent another strike group in the region.
Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has also ordered more planes in the Centcom area in addition to “other air assets that will further strengthen our defensive air support capacities”, probably alluding to patriotic movements.
These planes include B-2 stealth bombers, which offer a tremendous firepower and A-10 attack planes, in addition to the additional hunting planes attached to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which seems to come in the Middle East with his strike group.
The American army and its partners “are ready to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to expand or degenerate conflicts in the region,” said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell at the start of this month.
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