Agence France Presse August 17, 2002
No sudden US build up in Gulf, but preparations go back years
By JIM MANNION
For all the rhetoric of war with Iraq, the US military has so far made no overt moves to build up forces in the Gulf for a major offensive against Iraq.
US force levels in the region have remained at about 55,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, slightly below the peak strength at the height of the Afghan campaign, US military officials said Friday.
A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there have been no major changes in the disposition of US forces throughout the region.
"It tells you there is no plan," the official said. "That the president is being truthfull that there is no decision" to invade, he said. But in recent years, the US military has laid in enough military hardware in the region to equip at least an armored division deploying on short notice, the official said.
Air bases in Qatar and Kuwait also have been upgraded to receive rapidly deploying US air expeditionary forces in a crisis.
"There was overall an effort by Centcom to come up with a way to react quickly rather than to have a big buildup," said a former Pentagon official, who asked not to be identified. Centcom is the Florida-based Central Command which would be responsible for any US invasion of Iraq.
"The whole idea is to be able to act with things that are already there and not have to wait until stuff comes to the States before you can start operating," he said.
But he cautioned that the logistics of mounting a sudden invasion with even a small force -- 50,000 to 80,000 -- would strain the US military.
The most dramatic addition to US capabilities in the region is the al Udaid air base in Qatar, built in the mid 1990s in the desert southwest of Doha but now being finished to US specifications.
A key feature reportedly under construction is a command and communications facility that could be used to run an air war if Saudi Arabia were to deny the use of a state-of-the-art combined air operations center at its Prince Sultan Air Base.
Satellite photographs of the base posted on the website of GlobalSecurity. Org, a Washington research group, shows that since January new ramp space covering 18 acres (7.2 hectares) and a command compound have been added to the base.
With a huge 12,300-foot (4,100 meter) runway, one of the biggest in the region, the base offers a safe place to bed down an air expeditionary wing -- as many as 175 aircraft and between 10,000 and 15,000 men and women.
Two massive fortified hangars camouflaged to blend into the desert appear to be designed to shelter fighter aircraft.
"It looks to us -- with these two hangars combined --you could get a full fighter wing," or about 72 aircraft, said John Pike, GlobalSecurity.Org's director.
The base has the added attraction of spreading out US air forces that had been concentrated in Saudi Arabia, an increasingly reluctant US ally and one that is on record as opposing a US attack on Iraq.
"Every time we had a crisis, actually going back to way before Desert Fox, but certainly Desert Fox, we were always looking for places to bed down airplanes," said the former official, referring to a three-day US air attack on Iraq in December, 1998.
"The Kuwaitis really are swamped, the Bahrainis at least felt swamped, the Saudis were reticent," said the official. "We've never been that tight with the UAE (United Arab Emirates), and Oman is a long way away."
The air force first began using al Udaid in a big way after the terrorist attacks on US targets last the September 11 year.
Currently, it is being used for KC-10 and KC-135 air refueling tanker planes, as well as by C-17 transport planes. About 3,500 US forces are now stationed there, according to US defense officials.
Since 1998, Kuwait also has upgraded its al-Jaber and Ali Salem bases, reinforcing runways and expanding apron space for US and British fighters enforcing a no-fly zone over southern Iraq.
The US military has relied primarily on air power since the 1991 Gulf War to stop Iraq if it ever again tried to strike at Kuwait or the Saudi airfields.
But it also has worked to avoid a repeat of the six month build-up to the Gulf War.
Tanks, armored combat vehicles and other equipment for armored brigades have been positioned in Kuwait, Qatar and on ships off the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, ready to go on short notice.
The Pentagon has been quietly moving military hardware from its old Cold War bases in Europe to the Gulf over the past two years, military officials said. Armored combat vehicles and other equipment were in the latest shipment to the Gulf.
The Navy raised eyebrows this week by soliciting a charter for a second ship to carry helicopters, rolling stock and ammunition from the southern United States to Jordan.
Military officials said the shipment was for an as yet unnannounced exercise in Jordan, but did not rule out the possibility the arms could be left behind.
Copyright 2002 Agence France Presse
