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. “This is about upholding our commitment to maintaining combat-ready airmen and the disciplined execution required to keep air power available when and where it’s needed.”
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.
President Donald Trump said last week that an "armada" was on its way to the Middle East, as he condemned the Iranian regime's suppression of widespread protests in the country that have killed thousands.
US officials said 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.
"They [the Iranians] want to make a deal," Mr Trump said. "I know so. They called on numerous occasions, they want to talk."
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”.
