September 30, 2002. Copyright 2002. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Routine exercises and deployments hide Mid-East military build-up

LONDON, September 30, Graphic News: Behind-the-scenes preparations for a possible war with Iraq are well under way as U.S. and British war-planners use the cover of Òtraining exercisesÓ to shift ships, military equipment and key personnel to strategic locations.

U.S. officials repeatedly state that President Bush has made no decision about a military strike against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, as does BritainÕs Ministry of Defence, but movements under way enhance an already sizable force -- more than 22,500 military personnel -- that has stayed in the region since the war with Iraq in 1991.

The permanent troop-strength in the Iraqi theatre includes about 9,000 Americans in Kuwait; about 4,200 in Juffair, Bahrain, home to the Fifth Fleet; and just over 3,300 in Qatar. More than 6,000 Americans are stationed in Saudi Arabia, including a technologically-advanced air-operations centre at Prince Sultan Air Base outside the capital, Riyadh.

Most notable is the transfer of the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar from its current base in Tampa, Florida. CENTCOM, which is commanded by General Tommy Franks, controls U.S. forces in the Gulf region and Afghanistan.

Al Udeid, a sprawling base built on a desolate stretch of chalk-coloured desert, 28 miles (45 km) west of the capital Doha, has been transformed into a state-of-the-art facility -- with command, control and satellite links that can control thousands of air strikes daily. The air base stands next to arms warehouses, where CENTCOM has stored enough weapons to equip a brigade. 

Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit last week began a month-long amphibious assault-exercise in Kuwait. These will be joined by advance parties of BritainÕs 27,000-man Joint Rapid Reaction force, including elements from 3 Commando and 16 Air Assault Brigades, 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, and 45 Commando Royal Marines.

As part of ÒExercise Log Viper,Ó the Royal Logistic Corps began moving stockpiles of weapons and supplies to Marchwood military port near Portsmouth in mid-September. In addition Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ships, including the new Hurst Point, the Sea Centurion, Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale began moving supplies from Marchwood to a staging post at Gibraltar. The Hurst Point is the first of of five giant German-built ships commissioned for the British Army.

The U.S. Military Sealift Command has chartered three more large cargo ships to carry tanks and heavy armour to the Gulf. These are in addition to three squadrons of Maritime Prepositioning Fleet (MPF) ships already on station in the Mediterranean, at Guam in the Pacific and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The 16 ships of the MPF carry sufficient weapons and supplies to support  three brigades for 30 days.

The Pentagon has asked Britain for permission to build special, hardened, shelters for as many as six B-2 bombers at its air base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. If the British agree to the request, it will be the first time the $2 billion bat-winged B-2 has been based overseas for a combat mission. Basing the planes on Diego Garcia, however, would allow the Pentagon to fly more combat missions with the planes in the early days of a war, giving the military the ability to mount a far more intense air campaign.

Most controversial has been the rumoured deployment in western Iraq of IsraelÕs Sayeret  Matkal, the top-secret special forces unit that has been training with Pentagon Special Operations forces. Sayeret Matkal is reportedly tasked with identifying sites that could be used by Iraqi Scud missile-launchers ahead of any U.S. invasion.

In America, the U.S. Navy is speeding up maintenance and training schedules for three carrier battle-groups which represent a quarter of the NavyÕs main strike force. In addition to surveillance and strike aircraft, carrier battle groups include ships and submarines with long-range Tomahawk cruise-missiles that can attack targets deep within Iraq. The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier battle-group has recently arrived in the Gulf, the USS Enterprise battle-group is in the Mediterranean, and the USS Harry Truman, leading a third battle-group, is scheduled to be within striking distance of Iraq in November, bringing the total U.S. naval forces in the area to more than 20,000 sailors and 255 aircraft.

The Air Force, too, is taking steps to prepare for a war, bolstering the more than 200 warplanes -- attack jets and support aircraft -- already based in the region to enforce the no-flight zones over southern and northern Iraq.
/ENDS

Sources: JaneÕs Foreign Report, UPI, Reuters, Associated Press, Washington Post, BBC World Service, Federation of American Scientists