Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s Note: Late May 5, President Donald Trump announced on social media he was pausing Project Freedom \u201cfor a short period of time\u201d as negotiations with Iran progress. <\/p>\n
Air Force fighters, tankers, and intelligence aircraft contributed \u201cdefensive overwatch\u201d for the U.S. military effort to guide commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, senior officials said.\t\t<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said May 5 that more than 100 U.S. aircraft were participating in President Donald Trump\u2019s Project Freedom,<\/a> about the same number that are supporting the ongoing naval blockade of Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n U.S. Central Command boss Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters May 4<\/a> that A-10, F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighters, unmanned drones, RC-135 signals intelligence planes, along with Air Force KC-135 and KC-46 tankers, participated. CENTCOM declined to comment on the numbers of different aircraft being used.<\/p>\n Space operators also supported the effort, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine also said May 5. Caine declined to comment on specific systems being used.<\/p>\n Shipping through the strait has slowed to a trickle since the start of the Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. war with Iran, in late February. Iran laid anti-ship mines and has fired missiles and drones, damaging some commercial ships and intimidating others. Caine said about 1,550 ships are stuck in the Persian Gulf as a result. That\u2019s wreaked havoc on the global economy.<\/p>\n Since the start of a ceasefire, Iran has worked to control the strait as leverage against the U.S. With about 20 percent of the world\u2019s oil supply flowing through the strait, the backup has driven global oil prices to the highest levels in years. Along with all those ships, more than 22,500 mariners representing 80 countries are also in limbo, unable to get to their next destination.\t\t<\/p>\n In order to free those ships and mariners, the U.S. defined an \u201cenhanced security area\u201d on the southern side of the strait. Two U.S. Navy destroyers, supported by air and land forces, are providing \u201c24\/7 overwatch\u201d against Iranian attacks, Hegseth said.<\/p>\n Cooper said the two destroyers passed through the strait this weekend as a demonstration that \u201cwe have cleared an effective pathway\u201d through the strait that is safe from Iranian mines.<\/p>\n Three decades ago, in the 1980s, Iran tried to shut down the strait during its \u201cTanker War<\/a>\u201d with Iraq. At the time, the U.S. Navy protected<\/a> nearly a dozen Kuwaiti oil tankers transiting the strait by reflagging them as American ships and providing naval escorts, while the U.S. Air Force supported the operation with E-3 AWACS aircraft collecting airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The Navy frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck a mine during the operation, as did one commercial tanker.<\/p>\n This time, for Project Freedom, the U.S. Navy is not providing one-for-one escorts, Cooper said. \u201cI think we have a much better defensive arrangement in this process where we have multiple layers that include ships, helicopters, aircraft, airborne early warning, and electronic warfare,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a much broader defensive package than you would have ever if you were just escorting.\u201d<\/p>\n A-10s attack jets were already patrolling the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz as part of operations in the theater, and can provide close air support, including against fast-moving gunboats operated by Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. F-15s and F-16s flying in the region are equipped to shoot down Iranian drones. And F-35s offer powerful sensing and electronic warfare capabilities to further bolster defenses.\t\t<\/p>\n Iran \u201claunched cruise missiles, drones, and small boats at U.S. forces\u00a0defending commercial shipping in the strait\u201d on May 4, Caine said: \u201cU.S. Navy MH-60 and Army AH-64 Apache helicopters successfully\u00a0defeated those threats.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper said six Iranian small boats were destroyed and two U.S.-flagged commercial vessels went through the strait.\n<\/p>\n Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[17078,141,8801,12742,102,34,212,772,1525,33820,101,2174],"class_list":{"0":"post-100015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-adm-brad-cooper","9":"tag-centcom","10":"tag-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth","11":"tag-gen-dan-caine","12":"tag-hormuz","13":"tag-iran","14":"tag-operation-epic-fury","15":"tag-pete-hegseth","16":"tag-president-donald-j-trump","17":"tag-project-freedom","18":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","19":"tag-u-s-central-command"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116526089702791984","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}