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critical infrastructure, Gulf commerce, larger conventional forces with little or no warning, and give it the potential capability to halt shipping in and out of the Gulf for a short period of time. This makes Iran’s asymmetric warfare capabilities are of key concern when assessing Iran’s capacity to challenge the US and other large conventional military forces in the region.
US Forces in the Gulf The US and its Gulf allies have established a major conventional presence in the Gulf in response to Iran’s expanding capacity to wage asymmetric warfare. The US maintains installations in Kuwait (several jointly operated air and military facilities);, Qatar (key air and command and control facilities), Bahrain (where the US 5th fleet is currently based), and Oman (preposition and contingency facilities). The US cooperates closely with Saudi Arabia and the UAEs, and has large military divisor and contractor support groups in both countries. Britain and France also play a major role. Britain is particularly important in supplying key weapons to Saudi Arabia and in supporting Oman, and France plays an important role in Djibouti and the security of the Red Sea. The US is strengthening its own forces. In January of 2011, the US announced that it would retool and modify an aging amphibious transport ship, the USS Ponce, to become what the US military has designated as an Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) for military operations in the Middle East. According to US military documents obtained by the Washington Post, the purpose of this vessel will be a floating base for US special operations personnel, mine-clearing craft (MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopters), and will support patrol boats. The documents indicated that it will be able to launch the high-speed watercraft and helicopters used by US Special Forces.114 Additionally, it must be noted that this ship will serve as an interim vessel before two purpose-built AFSBs can enter service in 2014.115 Given its stated capabilities and area of operations, this AFSB and its predecessors will likely be employed as bases to counter Iran’s mature arsenal of mines, and strike at Iran’s asymmetric assets in the Gulf if necessary. There already have been reports that the US is also building up its mine forces in the Gulf for this purpose and beginning to deploy added special forces capabilities. The US is also reshaping its entire force posture in the Gulf to take account of its withdrawal from Iraq and the growth of the Iranian threat in other ways. It is deploying advanced missile defense cruisers to the Mediterranean, and can rapidly deploy added defenses to the Gulf. It is steadily improving its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities in the region, and is equipping its long-range B-2 stealth bombers with new hard target bombs. In a crisis, it could rapidly deploy its F-22 fighters that have an additional stealth attack capability. In addition to traditional conventional systems, the US has developed several assets to counter the kinds of threats that Iran’s asymmetric fast-attack craft and swarming tactics present – 114
“US Plans to Send ‘Floating Commando Base’ to Mideast, Documents Show.” Haaretz. January 28, 2012. http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/u-s-plans-to-send-floating-commando-base-to-mideast-documents-show1.409634 115
Cavas, Christopher P. “New Floating Base Ships Coming for U.S. Navy.” Defensenews.com. January 27, 2012. http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120127/DEFREG02/301270010/New-Floating-Base-Ships-Coming-U-SNavy
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