US military airlifters flew over 70 cargo loads of equipment from the Pacific to the Middle East, moving a Patriot air defense battalion from a priority theater to the tense region, a top commander said on Thursday.
The recent relocation of the high-profile air defense system comes amid a broader build-up of US military assets in the Middle East, including aircraft and warships. Tensions with Iran and the Houthi rebels in Yemen are running high.
During testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Adm. Sam Paparo, who leads US Indo-Pacific Command, was asked about the military’s capability gaps that exist in his theater.
He singled out cargo lift as an area of concern.
“For instance,” Paparo said, “just having moved a Patriot battalion into the CENTCOM AOR, it took 73 C-17 loads to move” that battalion. He was referring to the US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East region. “Our lift requirements must be paid attention to,” he told lawmakers.
A Boeing-made C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft can carry around 170,000 pounds of cargo, with a maximum takeoff weight of 585,000 pounds. The US military has more than 200 of these planes across the armed forces.
The MIM-104 Patriot is a surface-to-air missile system that has been in service since the 1980s and is regarded as one of the most advanced air defense systems that the US operates.
The US military has 15 battalions and has previously deployed them to the Middle East.
One battalion consists of four batteries, each of which includes a radar, a control station, and up to eight launchers that can individually hold four interceptor missiles.
Paparo did not elaborate on the Patriot movement. However, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing the day before, an exchange between Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and Gen. Xavier Brunson, the commander of US Forces Korea, indicated that the batteries came from the Korean peninsula.
It’s unclear where in the Middle East the Patriot battalion is being deployed, but the movement comes amid renewed tensions in the region.
Israel has resumed its military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, and the US has carried out airstrikes against the Houthis for over three weeks in an attempt to get the Yemeni rebels to finally stop their Red Sea attacks.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is pressuring Iran into a new nuclear deal, with the president threatening military action against Tehran if the two adversaries can’t reach an agreement.
At the start of April, the Pentagon said that it was extending the Middle East deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and sending another strike group into the region.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also ordered more aircraft to the Centcom area in addition to “other air assets that will further reinforce our defensive air-support capabilities,” possibly alluding to the Patriot movements.
Those aircraft include B-2 stealth bombers, which deliver tremendous firepower, and A-10 attack aircraft, in addition to the extra fighter jets attached to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which looks to have just arrived in the Middle East along with its strike group.
The US military and its partners “are prepared to respond to any state or non-state actor seeking to broaden or escalate conflict in the region,” chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said at the start of this month.
