The U.S. military has announced that its third aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, marking the highest number of U.S. aircraft carriers deployed to the region in more than 20 years, analysts said.
Thursday’s announcement came around the same time that U.S. President Donald Trump refused to give a timeline for when the Iran war would end, telling reporters at the White House, “Let’s not rush it.”
U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees U.S. forces across the Middle East, announced in a social media post that the third Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush had entered its area of responsibility.
Bush was commissioned in 2009 and is the newest of the United States’ 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. It is approximately 1,000 feet long, displaces more than 100,000 tons, can carry more than 80 aircraft, has two nuclear reactors, and carries more than 5,500 sailors and air crew members.
Asked about President Bush’s plans, a defense official told CNN on Thursday that the military “has not discussed troop deployments, vessel movements or locations to protect service members or operational security.”
But analysts say Mr. Bush’s appearance sends a message even without firing a shot.
Retired U.S. Navy Captain Karl Schuster said, “The mere possibility of a third aircraft carrier becoming involved will further increase the pressure facing the (Iranian) regime as peace negotiations approach.”
“The message is that if the peace talks don’t go the way he wants, President Trump could inflict more pain. Political image is just as important, if not more so, than military action,” Schuster added.
Sources told CNN this week that plans are being drawn up for new attacks on Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz in case the current ceasefire breaks down.
They describe possible attacks on small fast attack craft, minelayers, and other asymmetric assets that could help the Iranian government effectively shut down these vital waterways and use them as leverage against the United States.
Peter Leighton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and a former Australian Air Force officer and analyst, told CNN that President Bush’s aircraft could be used for such operations.
But he said the carrier’s fighters were a “very inefficient way” to attack asymmetric assets, adding that the Air Force’s A-10 attack aircraft, already deployed in the region, were better suited for the task.
Mr. Leighton and others said Mr. Bush could come to replace the USS Gerald R. Ford, which has been deployed since June of last year, far beyond the usual seven months or so for which U.S. aircraft carriers are deployed under normal circumstances.
Tracking sites showed Ford in the Red Sea earlier this week.
“Her crew is going to be off for a while… otherwise their operational efficiency will start to decline. So it would be wise to have replacements midway through,” Schuster said.
According to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Ford suffered a fire in a laundry area in March and did not deploy until two days after the fire was extinguished.
The ship then made a port call in the Mediterranean Sea for repairs and rest for the crew, the Navy said. However, it returned to duty earlier this month and returned to the Red Sea late last week.
Meanwhile, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has been in the Arabian Sea south of Iran for the first time since the war began on February 28.
Schuster said there are advantages to having a third aircraft carrier in the region, one of which is that Bush carries the latest F-35 fighter jets that Ford cannot handle.
Even if those jets aren’t the best option to handle the Revolutionary Guard’s asymmetrical navy, “having two F-35-capable aircraft carriers adds significant firepower if Iran proves to be assertive,” he said.
Leighton said two or three carriers would likely be too many to be used solely for blockade missions.
“Only one ship is really needed for a blockade, but the threat of further airstrikes against Iran makes a second carrier useful,” he said.
The three U.S. airlines will be the largest number of U.S. carriers in the region since 2003, according to data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Five U.S. aircraft carriers participated in the “shock and awe” offensive against Iraq in 2003, according to Naval Heritage Command.
Cedric Layton, a CNN military analyst and former U.S. Air Force colonel, noted the historical importance of the three aircraft carriers in the region and said it would put pressure on Iran to reach a deal, but it was unclear whether Iran would compromise.
“The jury is still out on that,” Leighton said.
Earlier Thursday, a U.S. official told CNN that Washington has 19 warships in the Middle East and seven in the Indian Ocean. The official did not include Bush or the guided missile destroyers in its Strike Group on that list.
If the Bush were an addition to Centcom’s fleet, rather than a replacement to supplement the Fords and Lincolns, it would represent an extraordinary commitment of the U.S. carrier force to the Iran conflict.
According to fleet tracking websites, only four or five of the Navy’s 11 total aircraft carriers are capable of participating in combat operations.
Due to maintenance, overhaul, and training, not all 11 carriers are combat-ready at all times.
Ship watchers captured the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt leaving the port of San Diego last week, and the Navy unveiled the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz participating in training exercises off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific. It depicts the USS George Washington making a port call in Japan.
Bush and her strike group departed from their home port in Norfolk, Virginia, on March 31, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa before embarking on a long voyage to the Middle East.
The route meant avoiding the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, where Iranian Houthi militants control the Bab al-Mandab Strait between Yemen and the Horn of Africa.
Lincoln is a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier with a similar profile. The Ford is the U.S. Navy’s newest and most powerful aircraft carrier, slightly larger than the Nimitz-class ships.
CNN’s Zachary Cohen and Haley Britsky contributed to this report.
