“B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers from Minot Air Force Base’s 5th Bomb Wing arrived in the US Central Command area of responsibility,” Centcom tweeted, with an accompanying picture of one of the massive planes on final approach.
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the deployment of the bomber aircraft on Friday, along with US Navy warships.
The Associated Press, citing four US and defence officials, reported on Friday that Austin ordered several B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft, tanker aircraft and Navy destroyers to the Middle East.
The US did not provide specific numbers of planes and ships sent to the region.
A US official told AP that Austin ordered the deployment of the destroyers, capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group of three Naval destroyers, which are scheduled to depart the Mideast in mid-November for their home port of San Diego.
The Lincoln and two of its destroyers are stationed in the Gulf of Oman, and the third destroyer is with two other warships in the Red Sea.
Eventually, the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its three warships will move to the Mediterranean Sea, but not before the Lincoln departs, thus the three destroyers will fill in the gap.
