Ready to Strike: How the US is Armed to the Teeth in the Middle East after Moving Ships, Jets and Troops Within Striking Distance... -Britain's RAF Planes & Troops Already in the Area, in its Large Military Base in the Med, - to Help with Back-Up, Arms & Supplies
- U.S. & UK forces have spent last two months moving ships, weapons and troops within close proximity of conflict zone
- Two F/A18 fighters flew from American 'supercarrier' in Persian Gulf to fire 500lb laser-guided bombs on ISIS group
- Jets were on USS George H.W. Bush, which travelled 1,000 miles from Arabian Sea to Persian Gulf seven weeks ago
- UK's RAF have been dropping supplies to the trapped people for some days
Daily Mail UK, 9 August 2014
The strike on ISIS today came after U.S. forces spent the last two months moving ships, jets and troops within striking distance.
After President Obama gave the go ahead last night, two F/A18 fighters flew off from an American 'supercarrier' in the Persian Gulf to fire 500lb laser-guided bombs on a group of Islamic militants outside Kurdish capital Erbil.
The jets were on the USS George H.W. Bush, which was ordered to travel 1,000 miles from the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf seven weeks ago.
Surrounded: The U.S. & UK have spent recent months moving ships, jets and troops
within striking distance with today's US attack on ISIS coming from the Persian Gulf
It begins: One of the two F/A-18C Hornet fighter jets that bombed the ISIS artillery position prepares for takeoff from the
USS George H. W. Bush in the Persian Gulf before the dawn mission this morning
Ready for action: And as soon as the first two jets returned from their successful bombing run on ISIS fighters marching
on Erbil this morning, the flight deck of the George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier came alive as more warplanes readied for action
It joined the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet - two aircraft carriers - the USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln - and several nuclear submarines armed with Tomahawk missiles.
Each carrier typically carries 64 aircraft, including the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft, E-2 Hawkeye surveillance planes and SH-60/MH-60 Seahawk helicopters.
There are also five other U.S. ships believed to be in the Arabian Sea of needed.
Obama's operational choices are limited to launches from bases outside Iraq's borders. The UK has a large military base in Cyprus
Among them are Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which already houses command and logistics hubs for U.S. Central Command and was ground zero for air sorties over Afghanistan and Iraq since the early days of the George W. Bush administration.
Al-Udeid is still used for some air missions over Afghanistan and houses long-range B1-bombers.
Closer to Iraq's northern provinces is an American air base in Incirlik, Turkey. After 2011, that facility inherited much of the airborne surveillance hardware – including drones – that the U.S. once launched from bases inside Iraq.
Unmanned attacker: The United States has its MQ-9 'Reaper' drones that can deliver Hellfire missiles more than 1,100 miles away
Gone in a cloud of smoke: A dust cloud rises where the first US bomb struck ISIS artillery being towed by a truck outside Irbil
The airstrike marked the first time US forces have taken direct action against ISIS since it began taking control of huge swathes of the Middle East
In addition, the U.S. commands a detachment of F-16 fighters in Jordan, where it has 2,000 troops based, according to a Pentagon official.
The superpower also has a massive arsenal of MQ-18 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones, capable of delivering Hellfire missiles more than 1,100 miles away.
The Reaper drones can also deliver 500-pound bombs.
The United States has around 800 personnel on the ground in Iraq - but not enough to launch an attack.
In late June it was announced that the U.S. was sending another 300 troops to Iraq to beef up security at its embassy and around Baghdad.
Response: On the ground, a Kurdish armoured vehicle rushes towards the site of the U.S. air strike to meet ISIS
Rolling tanks: Peshmerga fighters are pictured yesterday patrolling their territory in an operation against the ISIS fighters
It does have 10,000 troops in Kuwait and stores millions of rounds of small arms fire, thousands of rounds of tank ammunition, helicopter-fired rockets, machine guns, grenades, flares, sniper rifles, M16s and M4 rifles.
Britain has a large RAF base in Cyprus, less than 100 miles from from Syria and 650 miles from Baghdad.
RAF Akrotiri was built in the mid 1950s and first used in the Suez crisis.
More recently the base was used as a supply post during the Iraq wars and also used to support the attacks on Libya in 2011.
Before intervention in Syria was voted down by the Commons, this is where the strikes would have come from.
Now it could be used for air drops to the Yazidi tribe who are trapped in the mountains of Iraq or the British could share their bases with America.
White House: We'll Give Iraq More Military Support if Needed