US deploys 150 more aircraft to face Iran

ILLUSTRATION / US Military / ILLUSTRATION PHOTO via Instagram @usairforce

JAKARTA - More than 150 US fighter jets have been deployed at several points in Europe and the Middle East amid tensions with Iran, according to a report by the Washington Post.

According to satellite imagery taken on Friday (20/2), there are already more than 60 US fighter jets, including a dozen F-35 fighter jets, on standby at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.

Flight data also showed Washington had deployed more than a third of its fleet of E-3G Sentry surveillance planes to Europe and the Middle East in recent days.

Then, tanker planes and at least one reconnaissance plane were reported to have been on standby at Chania Airport, Crete Island, Greece, since February 17. Videos from Chania Airport on Saturday (21/2) showed that there were 10 more F-35 jet planes among the existing fighter planes.

Reported by ANTARA from Sputnik, Tuesday, February 25, dozens of additional aircraft and anti-missile systems equipped with Tomahawk missiles were seen being deployed on the aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford. In addition, dozens of F-22A Raptor fighter planes are already at Lakenheath Air Base in England and at least one unit of F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets reportedly landed in the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean.

According to the Washington Post, more than half of the newly deployed aircraft have landed at European air bases, the point of which is beyond the range of most Iranian missiles.

Previously on Monday (23/3), according to a report by The New York Times, citing sources, US President Donald Trump is considering the possibility of launching a large-scale attack on Iran if negotiations or a limited attack do not produce the desired results.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaili Baghaeimenegaskan Iran will consider the US "limited attack" in any form as an act of aggression.