Back, Yet Again, to the Middle East

Notwithstanding repeated attempts by United States Air Force brass to retire the aircraft, Fairchild-Republic’s mighty A-10 Thunderbolt II, a U.S. ground attack jet widely regarded as the world’s finest and most-feared close-air-support platform, is being deployed in numbers to the Middle East as Israel makes ready to move decisively, perhaps finally, on Hamas forces massed in Gaza.

Arriving A-10 Thunderbolt II jets—referred to affectionately as Warthog by the pilots who fly the machines to terrifying effect—will “support the U.S.’s  increased posture” in the region; so stated U.S. Central Command.

While it is known the A-10s deployed to the Middle East belong to the United States Air Force’s 354th Fighter Squadron, the number of aircraft and the locales to which they’re destined remain undisclosed.

The A-10s of the 354th FS join counterparts from the 75th FS deployed to the Middle East in March 2023 as part of a detachment sent to Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.

The U.S. has rushed military forces to the region following a coordinated series of savage attacks undertaken indiscriminately against Israeli military and civilian targets on 07 October 2023 by the Sunni Islamist fundamentalist terrorist group Hamas—formally the Islamic Resistance Movement.

While headquartered in Gaza City, Hamas maintains a presence in Israel’s West Bank region—within which Fatah, formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement—exercises control.

On Sunday, 08 October, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier—CVN-65 and the namesake and lead-ship of the U.S. Navy’s new Ford carrier class—to steam full-ahead for the eastern Mediterranean Sea, by which Israel’s western boundary is defined.

The U.S. does not yet intend to put American troops boots-down on Middle Eastern soil. Nevertheless, the Pentagon has stated unequivocally that the U.S. is committed to providing Israel ongoing means by which to defend its territories and citizens.

On 16 October, the U.S. Department of Defense summarily advised U.S. servicemen to “Be ready to deploy,” thereby rendering moot former assertions U.S. ground-forces would not partake in the evolving Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

FMI: www.af.mil