{"id":75997,"date":"2024-02-06T21:16:22","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T21:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/02\/06\/after-jordan-attack-pentagon-weighs-options-to-bolster-base-security\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:41:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:41:05","slug":"after-jordan-attack-pentagon-weighs-options-to-bolster-base-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2024\/02\/06\/after-jordan-attack-pentagon-weighs-options-to-bolster-base-security\/","title":{"rendered":"After Jordan attack, Pentagon weighs options to bolster base security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are no plans to move troops out of Jordan, a Pentagon spokeswoman told reporters Monday, and U.S. Central Command continues to investigate how an Iran-backed militia\u2019s drone was able to evade detection<\/a> and detonate above a housing building at Tower 22<\/a>, killing three U.S. soldiers<\/a> and wounding dozens more on Jan. 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While troops are more than likely to stay put at the remote outpost on the Syrian border, officials are mulling options for upgrading air defenses at Tower 22 and other small outposts across the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to go into those conversations, or what changing our posture looks like, but that\u2019s absolutely something that is being discussed,\u201d spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singh did not say whether some of those changes could take place before CENTCOM has finished its review, as attacks continue<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the weeks following Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and amid the bombing campaign Israel launched in retaliation on Gaza, the U.S. moved thousands of troops<\/a>, some ground and some on ship, to the region, in hopes of preventing other groups from stirring up more conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those mobilizations included a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery<\/a> and multiple Patriot missile air defense battalions to shoot down drones and missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For much of the past six months, those air defenses have been successful, preventing a \u201cmajority\u201d of the 168 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and now Jordan, Singh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That includes 67 in Iraq, 100 in Syria and one in Jordan, with more than 80 U.S. injuries among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot that we don\u2019t take those seriously,\u201d she added. \u201cWe absolutely do. But the impact of those [attacks] on our bases have not been significant until what happened at Tower 22.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early unconfirmed reports have suggested that the drone was confused for a friendly aerial vehicle that had been due to return around the same time, in the early morning hours of Jan. 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\t