Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen announced the deployment of additional air assets to the Gulf region by the end of this week. The following forces will deploy this week:

• Six F-117s from the 49th Fighter Wing Holloman AFB, N.M. to Kuwait

• Six B-52s from the 2nd Bomb Wing Barksdale AFB, La. to Diego Garcia

The Air Force will also deploy four tanker aircraft to Diego Garcia from locations yet to be determined.

Additionally an Air Expeditionary Force with approximately 30 aircraft, including F-15Cs, F-15Es, F-16Cs and two B-1 bombers, has been approved to deploy to Bahrain if requested by the commander in chief, U.S. Central Command.