Iranian strikes have left many of the 13 US military bases used by American forces across the Middle East “all but uninhabitable,” forcing the Pentagon to scatter troops across hotels, office spaces and other temporary sites as the war enters its fourth week.The damage has upended the way the US military is fighting in the region. With major bases hit, command centers damaged and support infrastructure disrupted, thousands of American troops have been pushed out of the facilities built to sustain war operations and into improvised locations, according to military personnel and American officials.In effect, much of the land-based US military is now fighting the war while working remotely, even as fighter pilots and aircraft crews continue flying combat missions and maintaining warplanes for strikes on Iran.The shift has allowed the Pentagon to keep up its campaign, but current and former military officials say it has come at a clear operational cost.“Yes, we have the ability to set up expedient operation centers, but you’re absolutely going to lose capability,” said Master Sgt. Wes J. Bryant, a retired Special Operations targeting specialist in the US Air Force. “You can’t just put all that equipment on the top of a hotel, for example. Some of it is unwieldy.”A US military official said that troops are not working from the roofs of civilian hotels.There were close to 40,000 US troops in the region when the war began. Since then, Central Command has dispersed thousands of them, with some moved as far away as Europe, according to American military officials. Many others remain in the Middle East, though no longer at their original bases.Among the hardest-hit installations are bases in Kuwait, where military officials said some of the most serious damage has been sustained. A strike on Port Shuaiba destroyed an Army tactical operations center and killed six US service members. Iranian drones and missiles also hit Ali Al Salem Air Base, damaging aircraft structures and injuring personnel, and Camp Buehring, where maintenance and fuel facilities were struck.Elsewhere in the region, Iran hit Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the regional air headquarters of US Central Command, damaging an early-warning radar system. In Bahrain, a one-way Iranian attack drone struck communications equipment at the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet. At Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, Iranian missiles and drones damaged communications equipment and several refueling tankers.One day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Iran’s military “neutralized,” Iranian missiles struck a base in Saudi Arabia, injuring 29 American soldiers and damaging US refueling and surveillance aircraft.The relocation of troops reflects the scale of Iran’s retaliation after joint American and Israeli strikes. Iran has targeted not only US military bases, but also embassies and oil and gas infrastructure throughout the region. With its supreme leader and dozens of other leaders killed, the Iranian regime has responded by launching hundreds of drones and missiles into neighboring countries and largely shuttering the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route.The conflict has also spilled into civilian spaces. Early in the war, an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq launched a drone swarm attack on an upscale hotel in Erbil. Iranian officials have also accused the United States of using civilians as human shields by relocating troops into hotels and commercial sites.Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has openly urged civilians across the region to report the new locations of dispersed American troops.“We are forced to identify and target the Americans,” the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a message to people in the region, according to Tasnim News Agency. “Therefore, it is better not to shelter them in hotels and to stay away from their locations.”The message added that “it is your Islamic duty to accurately report the hiding places of American terrorists and send the information to us on Telegram,” a social media app.Even after weeks of strikes, senior US officials acknowledge that Iran still has the ability to inflict damage.Despite a punishing air campaign, the Iranians “still retain some capability,” Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged in the Pentagon news conference last week. General Caine said that “layered defenses throughout the region” were allowing the United States to protect troops and interests but that the Pentagon was trying to bolster defenses in the region.Part of the problem for the Pentagon is that many of the bases and command centers the United States built up during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were designed for conflicts in which Washington largely controlled the skies and faced enemies without advanced missile capabilities. While Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and the US Embassy in Baghdad were often targeted in suicide bombings and other attacks, neither the Taliban nor Iraqi militias possessed the kind of ballistic missile capability Iran now has.That has left many of the bases the United States relied on for two decades suddenly exposed in a very different kind of war — one in which service members can no longer safely live or work there for extended periods, according to military officials.Some current and former officials say that vulnerability also points to a larger failure of planning by the Trump administration. They argue the administration underestimated how Iran would respond and failed to adequately prepare both military and civilian personnel in the region before the war began.According to those officials, the administration did not reduce staffing at American embassies and other facilities in the region ahead of the war, nor did it order departures for nonessential government employees and family members. The State Department also did not warn Americans to avoid the region until after the war had already begun.Two former US officials briefed on military operations said there were no reinforced roofs on command centers at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where one service member was killed and several others were wounded in an attack.The pace of the war has also strained personnel and equipment. Military officials say American refueling tankers were rushed into the region with little time to orient or practice before being thrown into nonstop operations. Earlier this month, two American KC-135 tankers collided, killing six service members. A Central Command spokesman said that incident is under investigation.Even so, some military officials argue the US military remains capable of continuing the fight despite being forced into a more fragmented posture.Sergeant Bryant said one of the military’s biggest strengths is what he called “decentralised execution,” or the ability to continue functioning even when units are separated and command structures are disrupted.“You could cut off the head of the snake and down to the last individual soldier, we’re still going to be operating,” he said. But, he added, “you still lose something.”Pentagon officials say the campaign is continuing despite the damage. “The Department of War has everything it needs to execute any mission at the time and place of the President’s choosing and on any timeline,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.But even as the United States continues its air campaign, the damage to its regional military infrastructure has created a new battlefield reality. American forces are still fighting, but many are no longer doing so from the bases built for exactly that purpose.
