Around 40% of U.S. naval vessels ready for operations are currently in the Middle East, including one carrier and six destroyers that are normally based in the Pacific, according to a March 3 Reuters report. The only U.S. carrier that remains deployed in the Indo-Pacific region is the George Washington, which is undergoing maintenance in Japan. The United States is also using a large number of cruise missiles and other strike assets against Iran, depleting stocks that will have to be refilled for future export orders.

Unnamed experts cited by South Korea's Chosun Daily in a March 3 report claimed that the United States could redeploy Patriot and THAAD missile systems, as well as Reaper drones at Gunsan Air Base, from South Korea to the Middle East.