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Source: Privy Council No. 10

In the face of the current tensions in the Middle East, the Pentagon announced a series of troop increases on the 2nd. The most notable of these was the assistance of the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier - yes, whenever there is an emergency, the United States' first reaction is always "where is our aircraft carrier?"

But behind the Pentagon's statement lies an embarrassing fact - the USS Lincoln is still hanging around in the Western Pacific, and it may take more than two weeks to reach the Middle East. And the general analysis of all circles, including the Israeli media, is that Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel is likely to be launched in the near future...

Foreign media reported that the USS Lincoln rushed to Israel

According to a statement from the Pentagon, the USS Lincoln will sail from the Pacific to the Middle East to replace the USS Roosevelt carrier strike group to "maintain the presence of US carrier strike groups in the Middle East." At the same time, Pentagon officials also announced that more ships are being sent to the region to respond to threats from Iran.

Warship launches missile at sea

U.S. Defense Secretary Austin has ordered additional cruisers and destroyers with ballistic missile defense capabilities to the U.S. European Command and the U.S. Central Command regions. The Pentagon is also taking steps to increase the deployment of more land-based ballistic missile defense systems.

The USS Lincoln is still operating near Guam.

The USS Lincoln is the first US supercarrier to deploy F-35C stealth carrier-based fighter jets, which has stronger attack capabilities. According to some media reports, it can form a dual-carrier battle group with the USS Roosevelt after arriving in the Middle East, which is also the standard configuration of the US Navy to deal with regional tensions. But the reality is that the US Naval Institute website admits that the USS Lincoln, which is currently far away in the Western Pacific, is unlikely to catch up with this emergency operation. It takes two weeks or more to cross the Pacific and Indian Oceans to reach the Middle East - and US Secretary of State Blinken said in an interview with US media on the 4th that Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah's attacks on Israel may begin as early as the 5th local time - now it seems that this prediction is obviously inaccurate, and the Israeli Jerusalem Post quoted sources as saying that Iran plans to launch an attack on Israel from the 12th to the 13th.

In fact, even after the Lincoln arrives in the Middle East, the so-called "dual aircraft carrier battle group" may only have symbolic significance. Because the Roosevelt is at the end of its six-month overseas deployment cycle, it was deployed on January 11 and will take over from the Eisenhower to protect merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden from July 12. As it has been at sea for a long time, according to the plan, the aircraft carrier will return to the United States at the end of this summer. The next US aircraft carrier to replace it in the Middle East is the Truman, but the latter is still conducting pre-deployment training on the East Coast of the United States.

The Roosevelt's location

Therefore, based on the experience of the US military assisting Israel in dealing with Iranian drone and missile attacks in April this year, it is actually the US Navy Aegis warships and US Air Force fighter jets deployed nearby that can really play a big role. The US Navy currently has two "Arleigh Burke" class destroyers deployed in the Middle East, which are sailing north along the Red Sea to the Mediterranean to enhance the air defense and anti-missile capabilities around Israel. "Defense News" said that it is not clear which destroyers and cruisers the US Navy will draw to provide reinforcements, but the escort ships of the "Roosevelt" aircraft carrier strike group may provide air defense cover nearby, including the "Ticonderoga" class cruiser "Lake Erie" and the "Arleigh Burke" class destroyers "McCain", "Halsey" and "Daniel Inouye". These Aegis warships are equipped with hundreds of "Standard-2", "Standard-3" and "Standard-6" air defense and anti-missile interceptor missiles, of which the "Standard-3" missile successfully shot down an Iranian ballistic missile for the first time in an interception mission in April this year.

Fighter jets launch missiles in the air

The Pentagon has not yet disclosed where the additional fighter squadrons will come from, nor where it will be stationed in the Middle East. Defense News mentioned that "US allies in the region may agree to allow US troops to be stationed, but do not want to make relevant information public." But in an interception operation in April, F-15E fighters from the 494th Fighter Squadron and the 335th Fighter Squadron of the US Air Force shot down more than 70 Iranian drones over Israel. These heavy fighters have amazing range and weapon mounting capabilities, can patrol in the air for a long time, and use advanced fire control radars to continuously monitor air threats. Because Iranian drones lack evasion and defense capabilities, the F-15E can easily shoot them down with multiple air-to-air missiles and even machine guns.

It is just a little embarrassing that the US warships have been deployed for a long time to deal with drone and missile attacks by the Houthi armed forces in Yemen, and the ammunition consumption is relatively large. According to statistics from the US Naval Institute, US warships and fighter jets are intercepting drones and missiles launched by the Houthi armed forces almost every day. Since the US Navy currently does not have the ability to reload vertical launch system missiles at sea, after the air defense missiles are launched, they must return to a few specific bases to resupply ammunition. Therefore, it is still unknown whether these US warships can deal with Iranian missile attacks for a long time in the future.