“We're watching this situation where the Iranians both have conducted attacks in recent months, and we are concerned about the threat stream that we are seeing,” John Rood, the undersecretary of defense for policy said during Senate Armed Services Committee testimony Thursday when asked about the Iranian threat.

Rood replied, “yes,” when asked by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., if the Pentagon was considering deploying more forces to the Middle East, without being more specific. Rood added the U.S. military was constantly considering options for moving troops around, not only to the Middle East, but to and from elsewhere in the world.

The additional American forces being considered are not Army or Marine infantry units, but air and missile defense units, as well as additional warships, officials say. These forces would be similar to the types of reinforcements announced in May. One of the Patriot anti-missile batteries was held in reserve at the time of the announcement last spring.

The aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, delayed for months following an electrical problem this fall, is finally at sea and currently outside the Mediterranean and will eventually make her way to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, who has been at sea in and around the Persian Gulf since May.  Late last month, Lincoln entered the gulf for the first time in the past six months. Both nuclear-powered aircraft carriers Truman and Lincoln could steam together for a “show of force” to Iran a few days before Lincoln leaves for San Diego, Calif., as part of a long-scheduled port shift.

Truman alone brings more than 5,000 additional sailors and a full air wing of roughly 80 aircraft, including dozens of F/A-18 Super Hornet attack and fighter jets.

Since May, the Pentagon has deployed over 14,000 additional forces—half aboard warships--to the Middle East to join more than 60,000 American troops currently deployed in the region known inside the Pentagon as Central Command, an area stretching from Egypt through Afghanistan.

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Pentagon Press Secretary Alyssa Farah pushed back strongly on a report Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal saying as many as 14,000 additional troops were being considered.

"As discussed in the hearing today, we are constantly evaluating the threat situation around the world and considering our options. We adjust our force posture and troop levels based on adversary action and the dynamic security situation. Secretary Esper spoke to Chairman Inhofe this morning and reaffirmed that we are not considering sending 14,000 additional troops to the Middle East at this time," Farah said.

When asked by Blackburn if the Pentagon was considering not just adding 14,000 troops but a “lesser number,” Rood replied, “The secretary of defense has not made any decision to deploy additional troops.”

That could change in the coming weeks, according to three officials who spoke to Fox News on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

President Trump was asked Thursday at the White House about the potential to deploy more forces to the Middle East.

"We’ll announce whatever we do we’ll announce, but certainly there might be a threat and if there is a threat it will be met very strongly, but we’ll be announcing whatever we may be doing -- may or may not be doing," Trump said.

In addition to being blamed for slaughtering over 1,000 protesters inside the Islamic Republic since mid-November, Iran has continued to ship missiles to its proxy forces in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, according to officials.

Not all of the Iranian weaponry had reached its destination.

As reported earlier this week, a U.S. warship, the guided-missile destroyer Forrest Sherman recently intercepted a shipment of Iranian missile parts bound for Yemen. Read more at FOX News