Washington DC

With the conflict between the US and Iran dragged on for months now, the Pentagon is evaluating its military footprint in West Asia, aiming to reduce its presence, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday (local time), citing eight officials familiar with the matter.

As per the report, the analysis, according to officials and others familiar with the matter, was not yet a formal review and will include whether to rebuild bases battered by strikes.

A key area being assessed by the Department of War is whether to pull back troops from the Persian Gulf, where America's large overseas military bases have been battered by months of Iranian strikes, two people familiar with the ongoing analysis said.

According to the Post, the damage to these facilities has prompted a once-in-a-generation chance for the Pentagon to reconsider its presence in the region. The Department of War has already signalled that it might not rebuild its bases as they were before the conflict.

The outlet reported that the evaluation is being led by the Pentagon's policy office, and a senior Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that the Joint Staff and U.S. Central Command were also studying the issue.

The official informed that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth had not yet ordered a formal review of U.S. posture in the region. Instead, the official cast the analysis as "prudent planning" that could eventually inform how the administration addresses whether to rebuild the bases damaged during the war.

"Decisions are going to have to be made on some of this stuff," the official said.

As per The Washington Post, the US Central Command normally stations about 40,000 troops across almost 20 sites in a 1,500-mile arc from Jordan to Oman.

Since early this year, the military has surged warships, fighters, air defence assets and other military equipment to the region to defend American forces and carry out more than 13,000 strikes against Iran, it mentioned.

Allies in the region have long depended on American forces for their defence. Any regional drawdown could leave states unable to defend themselves against Iranian attacks. It is to be noted that investing in domestic capabilities or partnering with other powers to offset the shortfall could take months to years.

Meanwhile, people familiar with the Pentagon's analysis said the issue is likely to intensify a debate between camps within the administration that support military interventions and others that have argued the Pentagon should curtail some of its security commitments to refocus on defending the American homeland or deterring more powerful adversaries, like China.

According to The Post, the discussions have also involved Admiral Bradley Cooper, the head of US Central Command, who supports deliberations about potentially moving American troops west from the Persian Gulf, as per a US official.

However, a spokesperson for the US Central Command declined to comment.

Notably, before the start of the conflict in February, the US Central Command evacuated many of its bases, judging them too vulnerable to Iranian missile and drone attacks to maintain normal staffing levels. Some of the shifts away from the major Gulf facilities might last after the war, a person familiar with the posture adjustments said.

"Iran thinks we are in the traditional places," the person said, declining to specify the changes so as not to put US service members at risk. "And we are not."

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However, multiple people familiar with the Pentagon's analysis cautioned that any permanent changes to American posture were still distant and would require the approval of senior administration officials.

The development comes as the Pentagon has publicly estimated that the war's cost will reach about $37.5 billion by the end of September, The Washington Post reported, but that amount does not account for the money it will take to rebuild bases in the region.