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The Troop Build-Up: 10,000 More Ground Troops Weighed (Fox News, March 2026)
How many American troops an invasion of Iran would take: 500,000 to one million, from generals and war-game analysts.
Generals WARN about Iran ground ops: 'FRAUGHT WITH RISK' · Fox News · uploaded 2026-03-27 · 7:20
Original: youtube.com/watch?v=68bhI1CL72Y · IPFS QmPZZ6HetM8Z5qGDj9HVSSaBroCUjTM6HVj29wmUXpnLLG
What this video is evidence for
Ground wars rarely start with a declared invasion. They start with "options," a few thousand troops at a time. This Fox News report (March 27, 2026, one month into the war) shows the build-up as it happened.
According to Fox's chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, citing the Wall Street Journal:
- The Pentagon was weighing 10,000 additional American ground troops for the Middle East, to force open the Strait of Hormuz, a mission "fraught with risk, according to current and former military commanders."
- That would come on top of a brigade of the 82nd Airborne already ordered to the region, joining more than 40,000 U.S. service members on bases "already hit by incoming Iranian missiles and drones."
- The USS Tripoli and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit were on their way, but would have to cross the contested Strait of Hormuz, "a very large, vulnerable target."
Former Trump counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales describes the options: "Maybe we do it via air, maybe we do it via naval blockade, maybe we do it via ground forces." He says any "limited incursion" should come at the end, once Iran is "as weak as it possibly can be."
Iran has about 90 million people and mountainous terrain, and military analysts on the other pages of this investigation estimate an actual invasion would take hundreds of thousands of troops. Tens of thousands are already there. "Limited incursions" are how the rest follow.
Where this fits: see American Soldiers Iran Articles for the full explanation and sources.
Transcript
Machine transcription (apple-speechanalyzer) of the full 00:07:20. It can mishear names and words, so check exact wording against the video before quoting it.
New video from Central Command shows the U.S. targeting key Iranian military sites. American forces aim to end Tehran's ability to strike beyond its borders. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is reportedly thinking about sending thousands more troops to the Middle East.
That could include ground forces and armored vehicles. President Trump posting this update. I am pausing the period of energy plant destruction by 10 days to April 6th. That's a Monday. Talks are ongoing.
He also says the regime is desperate for a peace deal. We've also destroyed a lot of the factories were continuing to do that, but a lot of the factories where they manufactured the drones and the missiles. The drones, too, are way down. They are begging to make a deal, not me. They're begging to make a deal.
And anybody that saw what was happening over there would understand why they want to make a deal. Chief National Security Correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, in Washington, with the very latest on what's going on with this. Hi, Jennifer. Hi, Julie. Well, as of yet, the new supreme leader of Iran, Mochtaba, Chamane, has not agreed to negotiations.
The Pentagon is now weighing whether to send 10,000 additional American ground troops to the Middle East in an effort to force open the Strait of Hormuz, a mission that is fraught with risk, according to current and former military commanders. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The request came from Sentcom, and is now being deliberated at the White House and Pentagon. This would be, in addition to the brigade of 82nd Airborne paratroopers, who have been ordered to the region, along with the commander of the 82nd Airborne and his higher headquarters, who will join more than 40,000 U.S.
service members distributed across bases already hit by incoming Iranian missiles and drones. The additional 10,000 American soldiers would take at least two weeks to arrive in the Middle East, which means no ground invasion is likely before mid April. The USS Tripoli, and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, could enter Sincom's area of responsibility as soon as today. However, those Marines remain in the Indian Ocean, days from the Strait of Hormuz, they would have to cross the contested Strait of Hormuz, where they would be a very large, vulnerable target. Unless the Marine Expeditionary Unit crosses the Strait, it will not be in a position to help with any sort of ground invasion, I'm told, by multiple sources.
Opening the straight will require de mining teams. And Captains Todd Sawhill, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer who spent the latter part of his military career planning for different military operations in the Middle East, says Iran's smaller, more agile forces capable of dropping mines, remain a serious concern. Conservatively, going into this conflict, there were estimated between one and 2,000 small boats, as well as one to two 150 to 200 other boats that are able to carry torpedoes, explosive boats, or ASEMs, any ship, cruise missiles.
So there's still a threat there, and Iran could choose to use it. St. Commander, Admiral Brad Cooper said U.S. forces that 92% of Iran's largest naval vessels have been destroyed, but experts tell us they aren't the vessels that pose the greatest threat to ships passing through the Strait of Hormoose, Julie.
Jennifer Griffin, thank you very, very much for that report. Nathan Sales, former ambassador at large and counterterrorism coordinator during President Trump's first term, joins me now. All right, let's just sort of break down the plan here. First, tell me what you think of the 1,500 additional troops, in the form of airborne paratroopers. Hey, Julie, I think this is all about giving the president options.
So we have military objectives that are gonna play out over the next two to three to four weeks, related to the nuclear program related to ballistic missiles, drone manufacturing capabilities, naval assets, and so on. I don't think the president has made a decision yet about what means he's going to use to reopen the strait, or to seize Carg Island, or incapacitate Carg Island as a major energy export hub for the Iranians. Maybe we do it via air, maybe we do it via naval blockade, maybe we do it via ground forces. But right now, I think the president and his advisors are putting the pieces in place on the game board so that the options are there if and when the president decides to use them. All right, let's talk about how dangerous that would be.
Let's start with ground forces. Armored vehicles and ground forces, something that's being brought up. Jennifer Griffin just mentioned, you know, entering into the Strait of Hormuz right now would be extremely dangerous and volatile. What do you do to secure that region before you send troops in on the ground, or do you catch them by surprise, and you go in on the ground? What is the best mission here?
That's a really good question, Julia, and the timing here is critical. If you're going to send ground forces in for a limited incursion, you don't do that at the front of the process. You do that at the end of our process of degrading and incapacitating Iran's military capabilities. You want Iran to be as weak as it possibly can be, in order to make sure that the risk to our forces is kept to an absolute minimum. So what does that look like?
It means using our air assets, to degrade their missile capabilities that they could use to hit our ships, to take out their surveillance capabilities so that they are able to track in real time, where our forces are, to destroy their weapons stores, some of those are kept underground in locations around the coast. A lot of targets that Pentagon planners will certainly be aware of. You need to hit those targets and work your way through the war plan as a precondition of putting any kind of ground troops in country. All right, um, and at this point, I believe, you know, the update on troops being wounded has gone up, um, but if you think about it, the total death count right now for Iranians is around 1900. You're looking at about 18 to 20 Israelis and around 20 U.
S. troops. There's obviously a lot of pressure on civilians being killed in this whole mission. The president intends on making it safe for the world. But at what expense?
And where do you see this going? as far as civilian casualties? Well, every civilian casualty is a tragedy, and it's something that our armed forces train and plan very hard to avoid. We have exquisite intelligence, and we have exquisite military capabilities that can put force directly on the desired targets, but nobody's perfect, and sometimes mistakes get made. Sometimes a weapon system fails.
Sometimes intelligence is outdated. And so I think this is part of the reason why the message you've been hearing from the White House to Iranian civilians is, do not go out into the streets yet. We want you to do an uprising against the regime and take your country back and take your freedom back, but not yet, it's not safe yet. So, hopefully, that message is getting through. The Iranian people are keeping their heads down for now.
And hopefully, we can use our capabilities to keep civilian casualties to an absolute minimum. All right. Ambassador Nathan Sales. Thank you very much for joining us today. We appreciate it.
Thanks, Julie. Be sure to like and subscribe for all the Fox News latest on YouTube and catch full shows streaming now on Fox One.
Last Updated: 2026-09-27