Senior U.S. military officials are weighing potential options for deploying forces to Iran, including a combat brigade from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, The New York Times reported, citing defense officials.
According to the report, the discussions are part of contingency planning and no deployment has been ordered by the Pentagon or U.S. Central Command, which declined to comment.
Officials told the Times that one option under consideration involves the 82nd Airborne’s Immediate Response Force, a roughly 3,000-soldier brigade capable of deploying within 18 hours. The unit could be tasked with seizing Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub.
Another scenario would involve about 2,500 troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is currently en route to the region, if President Donald Trump were to authorize such an operation, the newspaper reported.
The Times reported that recent U.S. airstrikes damaged the airfield on Kharg Island, making an initial Marine deployment more likely. Marine combat engineers could quickly repair the runway and related infrastructure, allowing for follow-on flights by Air Force C-130 aircraft carrying troops, equipment and supplies.
Under that scenario, airborne troops could later reinforce Marine units. However, current and former officials told the Times that while paratroopers can deploy rapidly, they lack heavy armored equipment that could be critical in the event of an Iranian counterattack.
Marine forces, while suited for initial assault operations, do not have the same capacity for sustained deployments as Army units, officials said. The 82nd Airborne could potentially replace Marine forces after an initial seizure of the island, according to the report.
The Times also reported that elements of the division’s headquarters could be deployed to help coordinate operations. Earlier this month, the Army canceled a planned deployment of about 300 headquarters personnel to a training exercise in Louisiana to keep them available in case of a rapid deployment to the Middle East.
The 82nd Airborne’s Immediate Response Force has been used in previous rapid-response missions, including deployments to the Middle East in 2020, Afghanistan in 2021 and Eastern Europe in 2022, the report said.