WASHINGTON — The rare measure taken by the Pentagon in recent weeks to keep two Navy aircraft carriers in the Middle East has now been completed as the USS Theodore Roosevelt heads home, US officials said.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the Roosevelt to extend its deployment for a short time and remain in the region, while the USS Abraham Lincoln was forced to arrive more quickly. The Biden administration strengthened the US military presence to help defend Israel against possible attacks from Iran and its allies and to protect US troops.
American commanders in the Middle East have long argued that the presence of a U.S. aircraft carrier and the warships that accompany it has been an effective deterrent in the region, particularly for Iran. Since the War between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip Since its launch last fall, there has been a steady presence of airlines in and around the region, sometimes overlapping, so that two airlines are present at the same time.
But before last fall, it had been years since the US sent so many warships to the region.
The decision to bring Roosevelt home comes as the war in Gaza has raged for 11 months, killing tens of thousands, and as international efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and the militant group Hamas have failed. repeatedly stuck while accusing each other of making additional and unacceptable demands.
A few months earlier this year the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower remained in the Red Sea, able to both respond to aid Israel and defend commercial and military ships from attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. The carrier, based in Norfolk, Virginia, returned home after a commitment of more than eight months in a battle the Navy said was the most intense since World War II.
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements, said the San Diego-based Roosevelt and the USS Daniel Inouye, a destroyer, were expected to be in the Indo-Pacific Command region on Thursday. The other destroyer in the strike group, the USS Russell, had already left the Middle East and was operating in the South China Sea.
The Lincoln, which is currently in the Gulf of Oman with several other warships, arrived in the Middle East about three weeks ago. Until now, the ship has been able to sail with the Roosevelt.
There are also a number of US ships in the eastern Mediterranean and two destroyers and the guided missile submarine USS Georgia are in the Red Sea.