Built for weeks of war: Inside the firepower the US has positioned in the Middle East

The U.S. military has assembled one of its most substantial concentrations of naval and air power in the Middle East in decades — a force structured not for a limited strike, but for sustained combat operations if ordered. While diplomats in Geneva trade proposals, the Pentagon has moved beyond a "show of force" to an operational footing that represents the largest concentration of U.S. air power in the region since the Iraq War era.

Two carrier strike groups now anchor the alignment.

The...