US forces will be conducting a "readiness exercise" in the Middle East as tension continues to simmer between Washington and Iran.
The exercise by the Ninth Air Force will focus on demonstrating "the ability to deploy, disperse and sustain combat air power" in the region, US Central Command said on Tuesday.
“Our airmen are proving they can disperse, operate and generate combat sorties under demanding conditions – safely, precisely and alongside our partners,” said Lt Gen Derek France, commander of US Air Forces Central and Combined Forces Air Component commander for Centcom.
In a speech in Iowa on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said a "beautiful armada" was sailing "to Iran right now".
"So we'll see. I hope they make a deal. They should have made a deal the first time."
Centcom added that the exercise would involve the deployment of forces to several sites, in co-ordination with countries hosting US bases, to "validate rapid set-up, launch and recovery procedures with small, efficient support packages".
"This exercise reinforces peace through strength by fielding a credible, combat-ready and responsible presence designed to deter aggression, reduce the risk of miscalculation and assure partners," it said.
The US has been shoring up its military posture in the Middle East as it trades bellicose rhetoric with Iran. Concerns are high that the US is planning to launch another attack on Iran, after a series of strikes on the country's nuclear bases last June.
US media reported that the USS Abraham Lincoln, its carrier strike group and guided-missile destroyers have arrived in the Middle East. The US has several naval and airbases across the region, as well as tens of thousands of personnel.
Mr Trump told Axios on Monday that the build-up was bigger than the American presence in Venezuela this month, when the US toppled the country's leader Nicolas Maduro and took him into custody in New York to face drug-trafficking charges.
"I hope they [the Iranians] make a deal," Mr Trump said during the rally in Iowa. "They should have made a deal the first time."
Iran, meanwhile, has said it would respond forcefully to any attack. State media this month quoted an Iranian general as saying that air forces belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were at their “highest level of defensive preparedness” and ready to “crush any aggression”.
