As Israel prepares for the land-based operation in the Gaza Strip, the United States has reportedly told them that two aircraft carriers will be around should they require further assistance. One carrier strike group was dispatched, but a second was deployed. The Wall Street Journal was first to report on this:
The U.S. may deploy a second aircraft carrier near Israel, U.S. defense officials said, an escalation of the U.S. military effort to deter regional powers from joining the war between Hamas and Israel.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its accompanying ships were scheduled months ago to sail this week for the Middle East. They are expected to reach the Middle East in roughly two weeks, defense officials said.
The USS Gerald R. Ford and its accompanying ships, some of which have nuclear capabilities, are expected to arrive later on Tuesday, defense officials said. The Pentagon is considering, but hasn't formally decided, whether the Eisenhower would relieve the Ford or both groups would remain, defense officials said.
The U.S. last had two carriers in the region in 2020 after a deadly rocket attack on Camp Taji in Iraq killed two American troops and one British service member.
Politico has more:
The Eisenhower group has long been scheduled to deploy and operate near Europe, DOD spokesperson Lt. Col. Bryon McGarry said in a statement Tuesday.
The ship is slated to leave Norfolk on Friday and could reach the eastern Mediterranean by the end of October if ordered, one of the DOD officials said. At that point, the Eisenhower would join the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford and its strike group, which the Pentagon ordered to the waters off Israel on Sunday as a show of force after the surprise attacks on southern Israel.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will continue to review the deployment plans of both ships, “as he considers the appropriate balance of maritime capability across theaters in support of national security priorities,” McGarry said.
The rare move to potentially have two aircraft carriers, which are accompanied by cruisers, destroyers and fighter jets as part of their strike groups, in the same area would be a major signal to Hamas that the U.S. military is supporting Israel.
The Pentagon did deploy two carriers to the Middle East in March 2020 amid heightened tension with Iran. At the time, both the Eisenhower and the USS Harry S. Truman, with their respective escorts, both operated in the Arabian Sea.
Israel is reeling from the barbaric terrorist attack on October 7 when 1,000 Hamas terrorists stormed the Gaza border and killed over 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children. Reports of rapes, kidnappings, and beheadings are pervasive. Whole families were wiped out in this genocidal attack, whose sophistication points to help from Tehran. Hamas launched this attack from land, sea, and air—some terrorists paraglided into Israel. A state of war has been declared, with the formation of a unity government in Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of reservists have been mobilized in what could be a war in which Hamas is wiped out in Gaza.