Latest Breaking News

Judi Lynn

(160,542 posts) Fri Dec 21, 2018, 09:39 PM Dec 2018

US aircraft carrier enters Persian Gulf after long absence

Source: Associated Press

Updated 1:46 pm CST, Friday, December 21, 2018

ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF (AP) — — A U.S. aircraft carrier sailed into the Persian Gulf on Friday, becoming the first since America's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May and breaking the longest carrier absence in the volatile region since at least the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The arrival of the USS John C. Stennis comes as Iranian officials have returned to repeatedly threatening to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes. Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels shadowed the Stennis and its strike group, at one point launching rockets away from it and flying a drone nearby.

The long absence of a carrier, however, could become a standard practice here as now-outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sought to shake up naval operations and American air bases spanning the region can scramble fighter jets and drones.

"We are trying to be more operationally unpredictable," said Lt. Chloe Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S.' Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. "Now we're switching it up because our adversaries are watching closely. We want to be operationally unpredictable to our enemies, but strategically predictable to our partners."

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/US-aircraft-carrier-enters-Persian-Gulf-after-13483664.php

2 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

US aircraft carrier enters Persian Gulf after long absence (Original Post) Judi Lynn Dec 2018 OP

I served aboard Nimitz in the Eastern Med pecosbob Dec 2018 #1

Of course, this was not a reason for Mad Dog JackRiddler Dec 2018 #2

pecosbob

(7,541 posts)

1. I served aboard Nimitz in the Eastern Med

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Fri Dec 21, 2018, 09:43 PM

Dec 2018

I always hated being in range of Soviet medium bombers.

"We are trying to be more operationally unpredictable," said Lt. Chloe Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S.' Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. "Now we're switching it up because our adversaries are watching closely. We want to be operationally unpredictable to our enemies, but strategically predictable to our partners."

There have been four saber rattles from DoD in the past two weeks...two at Russia, one at China and now one at Iran.

JackRiddler

(24,979 posts)

2. Of course, this was not a reason for Mad Dog

Reply to Judi Lynn (Original post)

Sat Dec 22, 2018, 04:38 PM

Dec 2018

to resign, it was the policy he endorses and came up with. As the article makes clear. And of course it's what Bolton, Kushner, Trump, Saudi, UAE, Israel are all on board with.

Now how you gonna have a war with Iran if you don't have some assets in Syria? How frustrating this must have been for the butcher of Fallujah.

Reply to this discussion