Troops, supplies being shifted into gulf region

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is taking steps to prepare for a rapid massing of U.S. forces around Iraq in the weeks ahead, bolstering stocks of military equipment and ammunition in the Persian Gulf, expanding command facilities and preparing several Navy aircraft carriers in U.S. ports to steam to the region.

The Washington Post, citing several defense officials, reported that before any military action, there will need to be a mobilization of several Army divisions, scores of Air Force aircraft and armadas of ships, plus a call-up of tens of thousands of reservists.

Given the time required to get these forces to the gulf region, the earliest an attack is likely to come is January, according to the Post's report. But the measures being put in place now will allow U.S. forces, after arriving in the region, to swing quickly into action against Iraq and avoid a prolonged and costly lingering of forces in Kuwait and other planned staging areas.

The Air Force, whose warplanes likely would lead off any assault, has stepped up production of the satellite-guidance kits used to turn "dumb" bombs into precision munitions and has been replenishing the stocks of bombs it keeps in the region after dropping many over Afghanistan. U.S. authorities also have approached Britain for permission to move B-2 bombers from Missouri to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.

For months, too, the Air Force has been upgrading airfields in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman to handle expanded U.S. air operations and compensate for the possibility that U.S. access to airfields in Saudi Arabia may be limited by Saudi reluctance to support an all-out attack on Iraq. A backup command post for running an air campaign has been established in Qatar.

The Army, which had kept about 2,000 soldiers in Kuwait for much of the 1990s as a tripwire against possible Iraqi aggression, has tripled the size of that force since November. A brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division is there now. The Army has acknowledged transferring equipment from its Qatar stockpile to Kuwait last summer to allow for larger Army exercises there, and still more Army gear is being shipped to the gulf from stocks in Germany, officials said.

About 2,000 Marines, members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, also are in Kuwait in an exercise dubbed Eagle Mace that affords training close to the border with Iraq.

Two Navy carriers, along with their customary accompaniment of destroyers, cruisers and submarines, are already within striking distance of Iraq. The George Washington, which deployed in June, is in the Mediterranean, and the Abraham Lincoln, which got under way in July, is in the northern Arabian Sea. Another carrier, the Harry S. Truman, is due to leave Virginia in December. And maintenance work and aircrew training on three other carriers on the West Coast -- the Constellation, the Nimitz and the Carl Vinson -- has been accelerated to prepare them for possible deployment to the gulf region as well, Navy officials said. Still another carrier, the Kitty Hawk based in Japan, also would be available for gulf action.

Next month, the U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for military operations in the region, plans to move a staff of 600 people to Qatar from its headquarters in Tampa. While billed as a training exercise, the move will allow for the establishment of a main command post that could be used in the event of war against Iraq.

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