In recent weeks, the Middle East region has once again raised alarms due to escalating tensions between Israel and Iran through their proxies. As a result, the United States Navy (US Navy) will deploy the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) Carrier Strike Group to strengthen its regional presence and, in some way, prevent the escalation of conflicts in the Red Sea region and surrounding areas.
Last week, Israel conducted a series of attacks resulting in the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital, Tehran. Due to this and other events, Iranian military officials and proxy forces in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen met to discuss retaliatory operations against Israel. Consequently, in the last few hours, the United States decided to deploy additional naval assets, such as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its escort ships with ballistic missile defense capabilities and their respective embarked air groups, to the area.
It is worth noting that the USS Abraham Lincoln’s position was previously occupied by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), which had been operating in the Middle East since July 12 of last year as part of Operation Prosperity Guardians to protect merchant traffic in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
After nine months of deployment, the carrier returned to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia to continue its maintenance tasks. In its place, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, flagship of Carrier Strike Group 9, departed on January 11, 2024, to support and occupy the space of the Eisenhower as it withdrew. “To maintain the presence of a carrier strike group in the Middle East, the Secretary has ordered the Lincoln Strike Group to replace the USS Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group, currently deployed in the Central Command area of responsibility,” reads the Pentagon’s statement.
During those days, the embarked air group’s aircraft accumulated more than 31,400 flight hours in operations to neutralize unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) used by the Houthis in one-way attack (OWA) missions aimed at merchant vessels, impacting critical maritime routes.
As another precedent, the official statement from the US Navy explains that in April, Iran launched a missile and drone attack against Israel in response to an Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria. This was repelled thanks to the American guided-missile destroyers intercepting ballistic and cruise missiles in the first combat use of the Standard Missile 3.
Finally, regarding the arrival of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, it is estimated that it could take two weeks or more to cross the Pacific and Indian Oceans to reach the Middle East. The Pentagon also announced the deployment of unspecified fighter squadrons heading to the region to reinforce the squadrons already operating there from various air bases.
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