ME = Middle East.
Continuing and concluding from the latest edition of the DEBKAfile as pertains to the Idlib situation and potentially beyond..
F-35 enters the fray. Poised and ready. Presumably warplanes part and parcel of the U.S. Marine strike force vicinity Yemen.
"First US F-35 planes deployed to Gulf and Red Sea. Marines drill unblocking Hormuz and Mandeb"
13 September.
"US naval, air and Marine forces have launched a war game off the Horn of Africa coast opposite the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea - their first drill for practicing a potential regional clash with Iran, whether full-scale or limited. They are focusing on the simulated Iranian blockage of the region's two vital choke points, the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea's Straits of Bab al-Mandeb . . . It is the first time that the US has introduced the F-35 for combat duty in these regions."
FIRST COMBAT TEST OF THE F-35. IF AND WHEN NEEDED F-35 WILL PROVIDE AIR SUPPORT TO THE U.S. MARINE AMPHIBIOUS FORCE THE MISSION TO MAINTAIN A FREE-FLOW OF MERCHANT MARINE SHIPPING THROUGH THE CHOKE POINTS OF STRAIT OF HORMUZ AND BAB AL-MANDEB.
coolbert.
