U.S. Forces in the Middle East: Mapping the Military Presence

The United States maintains a considerable military presence in the Middle East, with forces in more than a dozen countries and on ships throughout the region’s waters. That presence expanded in 2024 as the United States focused on deterring and defeating threats from Iran and its network of armed affiliates in the region, including Hamas (Gaza Strip), Hezbollah (Lebanon), the Houthis (Yemen), and several Iraq- and Syria-based militant groups. In March 2025, U.S. Central Command forces launched an offensive air strike on Houthi-controlled territories in Yemen from war ships stationed in the Red Sea.

Since the October 2023 outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel, a U.S. ally and defense partner, U.S. forces in the Middle East have been increasingly targeted by some of these groups—and have regularly responded with counterstrikes. Meanwhile, U.S. and coalition ships have been protecting merchant shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, defending against near-daily Houthi drone and missile attacks. 

The Pentagon has also responded as hostilities between Israel and Iran as well as Israel and Hezbollah have flared in recent months. In April 2024, U.S. warplanes and ships successfully intercepted dozens of drones and missiles fired at Israel in an unprecedented direct attack by Iran. In October of the same year, the United States announced it sent dozens of additional aircraft (four squadrons) to the region. The move came as Israel commenced a ground incursion against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran launched another, larger barrage of missile strikes against Israel. U.S. naval forces reportedly shot a dozen interceptors at the Iranian missiles. In March 2025, B-2 stealth bombers were also reportedly being deployed from their home base in Missouri to the joint U.S.-United Kingdom military base in Diego Garcia, an island part of the British Indian Ocean Territory that is within striking range of Houthi territory and Iran.

U.S. troop levels in any given region can fluctuate greatly depending on the particular security environment, national defense priorities, and various other considerations. As of October 2024, U.S. defense officials said there were some forty thousand servicemembers in the Middle East, many on ships at sea in the region. In total, the United States has military facilities across at least nineteen sites—eight of them considered to be permanent by many regional analysts—in countries including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. military also uses large bases in Djibouti and Turkey, which are part of other regional commands but often contribute significantly to U.S. operations in the Middle East.

All host countries have basing agreements with the United States, except Syria, where U.S. forces had been opposed by the government. (Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has indicated an interest in restoring ties with the United States.) Qatar hosts U.S. Central Command’s forward headquarters. Bahrain hosts the most permanently assigned U.S. personnel and is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The navy had multiple large warship formations conducting operations in the region, but since the start of the second Donald Trump administration, several warships have been returned to the United States to support domestic border security efforts. As of March 2025, two carrier strike groups will overlap in the region, with the USS Harry S. Truman extended another month and the USS Carl Vinson set to arrive in the coming weeks at U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility. The move to deploy the two aircraft carriers follows renewed firing between the United States and Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Red Sea earlier that month.