U.S. Won’t Rotate Troops Until Gulf Crisis Has Ended : Mideast: The policy could be a blow to morale of forces tiring of harsh desert conditions. The massive military buildup suggests an end of waiting may be near.

The U.S. military has abandoned plans to rotate American troops serving in the desert of Saudi Arabia, which means that the 238,000 currently deployed there can expect to stay until the Persian Gulf crisis is over, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said Friday.

President Bush’s decision to build up the gulf force by more than another 200,000 troops brought an end to tentative Pentagon plans to start rotating units out after six months, beginning about the first of the year.

“The new deployment that we’ve begun yesterday should be thought of as a net addition to the forces that are already in the theater,” Cheney said Friday. “They are not going there as replacements, but rather to be added to the forces that are already present.”

A senior military official put it more bluntly: “Nobody’s coming out.”

“Our rotation plan has just become a reinforcement plan,” said Lt. Col. Fred Peck, a Marine Corps spokesman. “We don’t have much of a base left with better than 60%, perhaps two-thirds, of the operating forces now committed to Operation Desert Shield. There’s not much left to rotate.”

The new policy could be a blow to the morale of American troops, who have complained of harsh conditions in the Middle East and have looked forward to announcement of a timetable for bringing them home, if only temporarily.

At the same time, the massive military buildup also suggests that these troops may not have to wait indefinitely for the conclusion of the crisis.

With the size of Operation Desert Shield approaching the maximum troop deployment of the Vietnam War two decades ago, “you’re effectively putting a time limit on the operation,” said former senior Pentagon official Lawrence J. Korb.

The Administration has insisted that it will wait long enough to see whether worldwide economic sanctions can pressure Iraqi President Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait before launching a possible military offensive to dislodge him.

But with a major share of U.S. combat resources now committed to the region, Korb said, “your ability to out-wait Saddam and let the sanctions work is limited. You can’t sit there with 300,000 people out there forever.”

As the Pentagon shifts gears to move the massive forces to the Middle East from bases in Europe and the United States, concerns are also mounting about the further stress that will be placed on an already taxed logistics and supply network in Saudi Arabia.

Already, the military has experienced trouble delivering hot meals, fuel and other critical supplies to front-line troops.

There have been repeated indications of isolated shortages. In the Army’s 24th Infantry Division, soldiers have complained that they lack batteries, tires and other crucial parts necessary to keep their equipment operating. These limits have contributed to delays in maneuver training for the division.

Some ammunition has been in short supply. After an initial lull, most units have now been allowed to live-fire their weapons, a critical preparation for combat. While supplies are sufficient for some training of this type, one Marine company commander complained that the exercise “was far more limited than at home. . . . We don’t have much to spare.”

Maj. Gen. Gus Pagonis, deputy commanding general for logistics for the U.S. Central Command, acknowledged in a recent interview that the United States has yet to reach its target 30-day stockpile for most supplies. But he insisted that the distribution system is “working well right now.”

“Don’t forget: The reason for the delay at the beginning was the conscious decision to bring in the combat power first,” Pagonis said.

As a result, the military initially had to rely upon foreign workers hired under contract in Saudi Arabia to deliver food, fuel, water and other items. Only in recent weeks, he said, have U.S. military drivers and their trucks begun to arrive.

Officials also expressed confidence that the additional buildup would not result in new problems involving military sea-lift capability. The early days of the crisis revealed numerous flaws in the sea-lift operation, which had been developed over more than a decade to assure rapid deployment of U.S. forces in just such a situation.

With the operation now up and running, however, adding to the sea-lift load will not be difficult, officials said.

“We’re going to be busy. Strained is too strong a word,” insisted Marge Holtz, a spokeswoman for the Military Sealift Command. “We can do this. Hell, we did the last one. Compared to the first one, this is easier.”

As more details of the buildup were revealed Friday, Air Force officials indicated that additional B-52 bombers would be sent to the theater before combat begins.

Military officials said that the B-52s, with their long range and large bomb payload, would be a key element in any assault on Iraqi army positions in Kuwait and southern Iraq.

Before American ground troops moved against the deeply entrenched Iraqi forces, waves of B-52s would carpet-bomb the enemy fortifications, Air Force officials said.

Under current Air Force plans, bombers now based at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean would be moved to airfields closer to the front, and additional planes would be brought in to allow continuous aerial bombardment of the Iraqi positions.

The Navy, meanwhile, plans to send to the gulf the aircraft carriers Theodore Roosevelt, America and Ranger, each of which will be accompanied by a coterie of eight or nine escort ships.

Some confusion arose about the overall number of additional troops to be sent to the area, and the Pentagon adamantly refused to issue any authoritative figures. Newspapers and television networks reported troop numbers ranging from 120,000 to as many as 240,000.

The higher number, used by The Times, is based on authorized manpower levels of the units and warships identified in the list of new deployments issued by the Defense Department. Pentagon sources indicated that all the units were at authorized strength and would be sent fully manned.

When the first wave of troop deployments began in August, media estimates of the size of the expeditionary force ranged from 5,000 to 90,000 troops. About 240,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines eventually were deployed.

Korb noted that dedicating such a large share of U.S. combat strength to a single region will leave vulnerabilities in other parts of the world. “What about chasing Russian submarines in the North Atlantic? What about your carriers in the Pacific?” he asked. “Basically, you’ve thrown all your eggs in one basket.”

And while the other areas of the world appear quiet, he said, history has shown that it is impossible to predict when another crisis may erupt.

When the intelligence ship Pueblo was captured by North Korea in 1968, for example, the United States was virtually helpless to defend it because the aircraft it needed were in Vietnam, Korb said.

Times staff writer Douglas Jehl in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.