WASHINGTON — A senior Pentagon official said Tuesday "flexibility" in redeploying military assets to meet urgent needs across the world is a "tremendous" strength of a U.S. defense system, while commenting on concerns about the reported movement of a South Korea-based missile defense asset to the Middle East. Michael Duffey, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, made the remarks during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, after The Washington Post reported last week that the Pentagon was moving parts of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to the Middle East amid the war with Iran. "I think our flexibility and our ability to redeploy assets to ensure that they meet the most poignant and urgent need across the globe is a tremendous strength of our system," he said. Duffey was responding to a question from Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) about how long the U.S. plans to redeploy the THAAD asset to the Middle East. The official said that he cannot speak to the duration of any particular redeployment of a military asset. But he reiterated the United States' c