The United States will send additional F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, along with a warship to the Middle East, the Pentagon said on Monday, according to Reuters.
The move is part of a bid to monitor key waterways in the region following Iran's seizure and harassment of commercial shipping vessels in recent months.
In May, the White House announced that the Biden administration would be making a series of moves in the region, but at the time did not say what it would include.
"The (Pentagon) is increasing our presence and ability to monitor the (Strait of Hormuz) and surrounding waters," Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters on Monday. It was not clear where exactly the additional jets would be placed and how long they would stay in the region.
This past Friday, a senior defense official said that the US would be beefing up its use of fighter jets around the strategic Strait of Hormuz to protect ships from Iranian seizures.
The US move comes after Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strait last week, opening fire on one of them.
Officials have said that, in the past two years, Iran has harassed, attacked or interfered with the navigational rights of 15 internationally flagged commercial vessels.
In late April, Iran seized the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet as it traveled in the Gulf of Oman. Six days later, it seized a second ship, the Niovi, a Panama-flagged tanker as it left a dry dock in Dubai.
The Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for global energy supplies, has often been a site of tense encounters between Americans and Iranian forces.
In early December, an Iranian patrol boat tried to temporarily blind US Navy ships in the Strait of Hormuz by shining a spotlight toward the vessels and crossing within 150 yards of them.
Last August, an Iranian ship seized an American military unmanned research vessel in the Gulf but released it after a US Navy patrol boat and helicopter were deployed to the location.