US F-35s & F-16s Joining F-22s in Middle East to Stop Iran, Russia

by Maya Carlin, Warrior Contributor, Weapons

Earlier this week, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that the U.S. military would be sending fighter jets and a Navy destroyer to the Gulf following Iran’s increasingly hostile behavior in the Strait of Hormuz.

In addition to the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, F-35 Lightning II and F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters will be deployed to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility “to defend U.S. interests and safeguard freedom of navigation in the region,” according to Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh.

In recent months, Iranian forces have provoked American merchant ships in the international waters.

On July 5, the Iranian Navy’s corvette IRINS Bayandor attacked the merchant ship Richard Voyager off the coast of Oman. The U.S. military deployed F-16s and A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthogs” in the region following this incident. The presence of these airframes is intended to deter Tehran from engaging in further hostilities through the waterway. Located between Oman and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian sea. This critical and strategic waterway sees almost a fifth of the globe’s oil consumption pass through it each year. In the past, Tehran has ramped up attacks in the Strait in attempts to demonstrate to the U.S. and others that they are capable and willing to interrupt the flow of oil to upset the global economy.

In June, the U.S. Navy worked with the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy to aid a ship in the Strait of Hormuz following an incident involving Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. (IRGC). The Navy released images of the incident, which depicted three Iranian ships appearing to harass a merchant ship. This provocation and the Richard Voyager attack in July are just the latest brazen acts by Iran in the strategic waterway in recent years. In fact, since 2021, Iran has interfered with more than 15 internationally-flagged merchant vessels, according to the Naval Forces Central Command news release this May.

Iran isn’t the only country attacking U.S. assets in the Middle East

The arrival of F-16 and F-35 fighter jets to the Middle East won’t represent the only new airframe deployment in the region. In June, CENTCOM announced that F-22 Raptors would deploy to the Middle east to aid American and allied airframes following a series of incidents involving Russian aircraft over Syria. In March, armed Russian fighters flew over a U.S. military garrison in Syria on a near daily basis, according to U.S. officials, violating a four-year-old agreement between Moscow and Washington.