The U.S. Air Force will conduct a large scale deployment of its Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters to the Middle East over the next five years to battle ISIL, and to keep the peace once ISIL is finally beaten.

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With over half of Mosul (the last Iraqi city under ISIL control) falling to Iraqi government control, and with Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIL's caliphate under attack, the final military victory over ISIL is reckoned to occur before 2020.

This will mean the F-35s, which will be assigned to United States Central Command based in Qatar, will have no worthwhile ISIL targets after the fall of the ISIL caliphate.

The F-35s will be left to contend with the unsettled military situation in the Syrian Civil War, and the continuing aggressiveness of Iran and its support for Shia-led uprisings such as those in Yemen and Palestine. Then there's Russia's military in Syria.

The unpredictability of the hawkish Trump administration might also lead to a deeper U.S. involvement in the Syrian Civil War. Only last week, there was talk of deploying up to 30,000 U.S. combat troops to Syria to speed-up the final victory over ISIL.

U.S. media said the deployment might occur as early as March. They also said the Pentagon is crafting plans that will send an unspecified number of regular U.S. Army combat troops and their supporting personnel into Syria to bump-up the force of 500 combat advisers in country coordinating efforts to destroy the ISIL.

They report Trump has directed the Pentagon to accelerate plans for defeating ISIL. Trump was also reported to have expressed a willingness to expand the United States' military presence in Syria. 

Some sources claim the army is considering deploying up to 30,000 men in Syria to attain Trump's campaign promise of speeding-up the prosecution of the fight against ISIL, and to protect safe zones for the 11 million Syrian refugees who have fled the fighting.

Other political observers said such a massive commitment of U.S. ground troops not seen since the surge in U.S. ground troops committed to the Iraq War by former U.S. president George Bush in 2007 will be deeply unpopular with the war-weary American public.

The F-35s are expected to deploy to the Middle East in the "not too distant future," said Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, Commander, Air Combat Command based at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.

 "The Middle East deployment isn't imminent. It's planned for a few years out."

He did reveal the Air Force plans to send small numbers of F-35s to Europe and the Asia-Pacific region first, maybe as soon as this spring. 

TagsU.S. Air Force, Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters, Middle East, ISIL, Syria, Iraq, Syrian Civil War, Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, United States Central Command