Iran Press/ Middle East: The USS John C. Stennis sailed into the Persian Gulf on Friday, ahead of the final stage of the IRGC's 12th 'Great Prophet' military exercises currently being held in the waters of the Persian Gulf and in the Island of Qeshm.
The long absence of a US aircraft carrier, however, could become a standard practice as the outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis seeks to shake up naval operations and American air bases spanning the region can scramble fighter jets and drones, TIME reported.
“We are trying to be more operationally unpredictable,” said Lt. Chloe Morgan, a spokeswoman for US’ Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.
“Now we’re switching it up because our adversaries are watching closely. We want to be operationally unpredictable to our enemies, but strategically predictable to our partners," he added.
The US military also operates air bases in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as a major Army base in Kuwait and its Navy base in Bahrain. That offers the American military a variety of locations both in the Persian Gulf, as well as other bases in the wider Mideast, to launch strikes.
US aircraft carriers have long been patrolling the Persian Gulf, carrying thousands of personnel and dozens of fighter jets, missiles and other weapons.
But the deployments stopped in March after the USS Theodore Roosevelt left for the Pacific, as part of the Trump administration’s shift of strategy to focus more on China and Russia. 101/ 211 /202
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