An increasingly hostile environment in the Middle East has prompted the US to deploy an additional six batteries of the MIM-104 Patriot missile system, doubling the total number in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The Pentagon is now running low on the equipment, the newspaper said.
The reported relocation was conducted amid a spree of missile and drone attacks on American military bases in Iraq and Syria, which Washington has attributed to Iranian proxy forces. The additional batteries were sent to Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which host dozens of US military installations, the WSJ said, citing people familiar with the deployments and the Pentagon’s recruitment advertisements for Patriot operators.
One of the more visible consequences of the increased demand for the long-range air-defense systems, as identified by the WSJ, is Washington’s decision not to send a Patriot battery to the Dubai Airshow, which started on Monday. The Pentagon had planned to display all three principal elements of the system, including the launcher, radar truck and command station, but announced the diversion of the hardware in late October.
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