Exclusive: US to send 2nd aircraft carrier to eastern Mediterranean

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News

October 14, 2023, 5:24 PM


The Pentagon has ordered a second aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel to deter Iran or Hezbollah from joining the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to U.S. officials.

A senior US official and a US official told ABC News that the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group will be ordered to the eastern Mediterranean to join the USS Gerald R Ford carrier strike group that arrived there earlier this week and is in international waters off of Israel.

A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately have a comment on the development.

Senior U.S. officials have said publicly this week that the presence of the USS Ford carrier strike group in the eastern Mediterranean and the addition of more U.S. Air Force fighter jets to the region was intended to show the U.S. commitment to Israel and to serve as a deterrent to Iran and Hezbollah not to get involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/exclusive-us-send-2nd-aircraft-carrier-eastern-mediterranean/story?id=103984246

[KS Toronado]

1. Will U.S. fighter pilots be flying our planes

if so, has the U.S. declared war on somebody, or are we just going after Hamas terrorists because we don't
like them on the evening news?

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Saber-rattling

[Earl_from_PA]

7. Exactly

Deterent. Nothing else.

[KS Toronado]

8. I see repugs encouraging Biden/Democrats

to stop rattling our sabers and put them to good use for our great and almighty Military Industrial Complex
while yelling Israel, Israel, Israel, especially if Gym Jordan becomes Speaker.

[Earl_from_PA]

9. Again, for clarity, absent an official declaration of war

The decision rests solely with the President. Are you suggesting Jim Jordan has that much influence?...

[KS Toronado]

15. No, but he'll be trying

If he gets the speaker-ship he'll multiply his attacks on Biden & Democrats. Biden is smart enough not to take
any advise from that idiot.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Well also note that the administration is working to get

what amounts to many thousands of American citizens (or dual citizens) out of the country if they ask for it, so they can also serve logistical purposes (including providing cover via CAPs for domestic flights out, etc). Need to avoid another Afghanstan-evacuation pile of bullshit talking points if some kind of plan (and support structure) isn't in place.

[Earl_from_PA]

11. Excellent point

Logistics. In support of American lives.

[onetexan]

30. Thou art correct as usual, oh wise one 🙂

[sarisataka]

14. Jim Jordan

Nor any SotH is Commander in Chief

[KS Toronado]

16. True, but Gym sure loves to play political mind games doesn't he?

Plus Biden will probably never agree with Gym on anything.

[marybourg]

4. U. S. pilots fly planes in all parts of

the world for many reasons, without us having declared war. And have done so for many decades.

[Earl_from_PA]

5. Without an official U.S. declaration of war

The Commander in Chief makes the decision if, and when, and where, U.S. forces strike. Trust Biden.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

19. CoC makes that decision with or without Congressional Declaration...see Iraq, Kuwait, Vietnam...etc.

[COL Mustard]

37. And without a functioning House

There’s no declaration of war. Both Houses have to approve it, if I remember correctly.

[paleotn]

12. Deterrence against escalation. Nothing more.

Calm yourself.

[JohnSJ]

25. That is exactly what it is. Iran came out threatening if Israel goes after Zhamas they will get

involved

[cstanleytech]

32. The President has rather broad powers none of which require such a declaration. For example it

does not require a declaration of war to provide defensive assistance to a known ally.
Second it does not require a declaration of war if he was to send in some troops to free American hostages which Hamas did take a number of.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

38. Did not require declaration of war to invade Iraq! Too many powers...what if trump had them...again?

[cstanleytech]

43. The majority of Congress backed up the decision to invade Iraq and if the majority opposed it they

could have done a number of things from impeachment to cutting funding enough to force a troop withdrawal.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

46. No declaration of war, President given war powers Patriot Act. ... took years more to rescind...

Congress cleared out of responsibility for the fake news war.

[Evolve Dammit]

2. I guess we have to be "policemen of the world." (sigh). My WW I and II relatives would agree. nt

[Earl_from_PA]

6. See post 5

...

[paleotn]

13. Giving Iran and Syria a moment of pause.

Stay out of it or else. No escalation allowed.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

20. Weren't doing anything useful anyway...might as well feed the warhawks some guano.

Now where’s the follow up unnamed military official sources unofficially feeding an article about Iran warning, or something like that to spin the newsloop for a couple days?

[cstanleytech]

44. I suspect some of it has to do with subconscious guilt due to the US not stepping in and

helping to prevent the wholesale murder or millions of people in the death camps.

[ripcord]

17. The President has said no one was to try and take advantage of Israel'

And he sent two full carrier groups to enforce his warning.

[Kennah]

18. This is mostly deterrence, but if Hezbollah or Iran tries to directly engage, that will change

[Lasher]

21. I worry about the safety of our carrier groups.

The Iron Dome was overwhelmed with what was basically a missile swarm. Such an attack is possible against our carrier groups.

[ripcord]

22. That is why the the carriers have Aegis guided missile cruisers and destroyers as a screen

[Lasher]

23. This is reassuring.

But I will still worry about this.

[ripcord]

24. You are right to worry, there is no telliong what that madman Ali Khamenei might do

But one carrier group is more powerful than any Air Force in the middle east, the two together can take the combined Air Forces of the middle east if ordered to or if they need to defend themselves.

[Lasher]

26. Hamas saved up their missiles and launched them pretty much all at once.

Iran could do the same to maybe take out one of our carriers. The concept is simple. They would just need to have more attack ordinance than we have for defense. And it's a pretty good bet that Iran has lots of rockets and drones.

It is true to say we are loaded for bear. But what if an adversary loads for 2 bears? Maybe you have been following developments in Ukraine.

I have had this concern for a number of years now, and technology just keeps evolving. Maybe we have clung too long to WWII concepts.

[cstanleytech]

34. It's not just a carrier alone it's a fleet and there are probably more than enough ships in the two

fleets to provide a defensive screen between almost any weapon Iran might send and the carrier barring a nuclear one.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. Regarding the CSGs

the Gerald Ford Group has the 1 carrier but also 6 destroyers. The Eisenhower Group has a cruiser and 2 destroyers.

So assuming this configuration, you're talking 10 ships. It will take awhile to get them in place since a couple are just deploying now from the U.S. and have to head east. Some other news on the status of the navy - https://news.usni.org/2023/10/14/carriers-uss-dwight-d-eisenhower-uss-carl-vinson-deploy-4-strike-groups-now-underway

Don't forget that Iran unloaded what they had to Russia to use to fight Ukraine (that after a year has almost completely dropped out of the news) and the fact that Putin had to go to Kim Jung Un, hat in hand to get more, suggests that Iran is running out.

[onetexan]

31. This! ☝️

[EX500rider]

27. Those Hamas missiles have no where near the accurately to hit a moving ship way offshore

Assuming they could even locate it with enough accuracy to hit it.

[Lasher]

28. There's lots of people who would like to sink one of our carriers.

It's not just Hamas.

[EX500rider]

29. However neither Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran have the means to sink a USN CV offshore in the Med

[cstanleytech]

33. A carrier group isn't a stationary target.

[XorXor]

42. A moving carrier and other ships are a lot harder to hit than a large stationary city

I do not believe the Hamas rockets have any sort of intelligence in them to make them effective in the anti-ship role even if they were fired within range of the fleet.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

36. Putin's upset by just one carrier in the area. He's going to piss in his pants about two.

Especially since the Ukranians sank his Russian flagship Moskva at the beginning of the war.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

39. Where are Americas 30 nuclear missile subs...these two groups are for show...mostly used for that.

Lot of pissing in the world if that’s all it takes…America moving military asserts around and around and around the world…almost like a police patrol?!

[Torchlight]

40. Chess is a complex game.

A lot of people are confounded by it. Moving a bishop during the opening five to block can seem confusing.

[EX500rider]

41. The "nuclear missile subs" ie SSBNs are either on patrol in deep oceans as usual or in port

The carrier group most like has a attack sub (SSNs) attached with cruise missile capability.

[Magoo48]

45. I'd much rather see the aid sent in the form of humanitarian aid and a hospital ship.

Perhaps as a balance towards all the collateral damage this money and these weapons will cause.

[EX500rider]

47. This is more likely to keep the war spreading to Hezbollah or Iran