Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has quietly prepared for the Iran war to drag on well into next year, according to a report.
Hegseth is extending military deployments in and around the Middle Eastern country as part of an “open-ended” strategy to give President Donald Trump options on how to proceed with his deeply unpopular conflict, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
This includes keeping around 50,000 troops in the region should Trump decide to drastically escalate the war, as well as deploying multiple warships, air-defense units and fighter squadrons for extended periods.
The plans signal that the war in Iran could continue into 2027, putting increasing pressure and strain on military personnel who are already being deployed for longer than expected in a war that has dragged on for more than six months.
The moves also come as the constantly embattled Hegseth has faced numerous other headaches while leading the Pentagon.
This includes pulling decades of classified documents from a secret computer system after it was leaked to the Washington Post that top military leaders formally signaled their opposition to plans to keep tens of thousands of troops in the Middle East for an extended period.
After joining Israel in attacking Iran on Feb. 28, Trump repeatedly insisted that the war would be over in a matter of weeks.
Sources told the Journal that the president has privately discussed declaring that the war is over, even as both countries resume fighting around the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route.
Trump also believes that his current plan of increasing economic pressure on Iran with additional sanctions to force Tehran to negotiate an end to the war will ultimately prove successful.
Aides have also warned Trump that escalating the fighting could severely damage Republicans in the midterm elections. Trump has said that he is not considering the possibility of the GOP suffering an electoral wipeout in November when making decisions regarding the war, according to the Journal.
Hegseth is expanding troop deployments around Iran to provide the 80-year-old president with more options on how to proceed with the war.
It was previously reported that Trump is weighing sending ground forces to seize islands near the Strait of Hormuz, as well as bombing Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified site that Tehran could be using for covert nuclear work.
There are also plans to continue using U.S. warships to enforce Trump’s blockade of Iranian ports as part of the pressure campaign. The war has already caused some of the longest Navy deployments in modern history, including that of the USS Gerald R. Ford, which was at sea for 11 months before returning home in May.
Sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have also complained of dire working conditions and even feeling suicidal after spending several months deployed at sea. On Wednesday, the rust-covered and battered aircraft carrier docked in Thailand on its way home to San Diego, underscoring the strain Trump’s war has put on the U.S. military.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt is also preparing for what is believed to be a lengthy deployment to the Middle East, an official told the Journal.
The ship is still conducting training exercises and has not yet departed, meaning it could remain deployed well into next year if it is used for operations in Iran.
Bryan Clark, a former senior U.S. Navy official and now a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute, said the Trump administration appears to want to keep aircraft carriers in the region should the fighting escalate.
“They’re setting it up to be sustained over the long haul, meaning well into next year,” Clark told the Journal. “But to sustain it at this level, it means you’re giving up presence in other regions. So you’re kind of going all in on Iran being the focus of military posture over the next year.”
In a Tuesday Truth Social post, Trump suggested he is happy with how the war is going while also calling for the Iranian people to help end it.
“I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing. They are just playing out the inevitable,” Trump wrote. “When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
