The Pentagon has ordered a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East, amid increasing tensions between Iran and Israel following the assassination of a Palestinian militant leader in Tehran in July.
When it arrives on station, the USS Abraham Lincoln will provide a significant amount of firepower, including three squadrons Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet strike fighters and one squadron of sea-based Lockheed Martin F-35C stealth fighters.
The Abraham Lincoln’s carrier air wing also includes a fifth fighter squadron of Boeing EA-18G electronic attack jets, a type which logged its first air-to-air kill during Middle East operations earlier this year.
Those combat aircraft will supplement the air wing of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which is already on station in the Middle East region. Its aviators currently fly the F/A-18 and EA-18G, but not the F-35.
US secretary of defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart on 11 August, according to the Pentagon, just before announcing the deployment of an additional aircraft carrier.
“Secretary Austin reiterated the United States’ commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel,” says the US Department of Defense.
US Navy fighter aircraft played a pivotal role in defending Israeli airspace during an April barrage that included as many as 350 one-way UAVs and guided missiles.
The US Naval Institute’s fleet tracker listed the Roosevelt carrier strike group as being off the southern coast of Yemen on 5 August, while the Abraham Lincoln was located near Guam.
In addition to the two aircraft carriers, the Pentagon has also ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East. The USS Georgia is armed with non-nuclear conventional cruise missiles.
The Pentagon on 12 August described the moves as adjustments “designed to improve US force protection, to increase support for the defence of Israel and to ensure the United States is prepared to respond to various contingencies”.
Washington separately confirmed that a 9 August one-way UAV attack against a military site in Syria known as the Rumalyn Landing Zone produced several ”minor injuries” among the American personnel stationed at the base.
