The Associated Press January 16, 2007
Stennis sails for Mideast to beef up carrier force
Commercial Jet With Northrop's Anti-Missile Defense System Takes Off From LAX
By Jim Krane
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis set sail for the Middle East on Tuesday, leaving its Bremerton, Wash., homeport to help beef up U.S. forces near Iraq and Iran.
The Stennis' arrival, expected in about a month, will mark the first time since the U.S.-led Iraq invasion in 2003 that the United States will have two carrier battle groups in the region.
The increase in U.S. forces is a show of strength by the U.S. in the face of Iran's growing regional assertiveness and a perception among U.S. adversaries that the United States is vulnerable in Iraq, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.
Last week, President Bush ordered 21,500 more soldiers to Iraq.
The Stennis and the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, an Army Stryker brigade at Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Wash., were part of the call-up. The 4th Brigade is scheduled to leave in April, a month earlier than planned.
The Stennis, a Nimitz-class carrier, with approximately 3,200 sailors, will stop off in San Diego to pick an air wing of more than 80 planes, including F/A-18 Hornet and Superhornet fighter-bombers.
After a monthlong voyage across the Pacific and Indian oceans, the Stennis will join the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which is already tasked to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, based in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, said Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl of the Fifth Fleet.
Once in Middle East waters, the second aircraft carrier will significantly boost U.S. air power in the region and serve as a reminder of U.S. firepower to Iran. Its arrival will give the Pentagon two U.S. carriers in the region for the first time since 2003, Aandahl said.
"This demonstrates our resolve to do what we can to bring security and stability to the region," Aandahl said. "That's obviously to dissuade others from acting counter to our national interest."
The arrival of the nuclear-powered Stennis comes in addition to an additional Patriot anti-missile battalion that Gates said will be sent to a U.S. allied Gulf Arab country, as well as the additional troops that President Bush said were part of an increase in U.S. forces in Iraq.
The Pentagon has not said where the Patriots will be based.
The Stennis was previously in line to deploy to the Pacific, where a key concern is North Korea. Instead, the carrier battle group will focus on Iraq, Afghanistan or join the Eisenhower-led task force on its current mission, off the coast of Somalia, Aandahl said.
In Brussels on Monday, Gates indicated that Iran's perception of U.S. vulnerability in the region was part of the reason the Pentagon decided last week to send a second aircraft carrier battle group and a Patriot anti-missile battalion to the Gulf area. Patriots defend against shorter-range missiles of the type that Iran could use to hit U.S. bases in the area.
"We are simply reaffirming that statement of the importance of the Gulf region to the United States and our determination to be an ongoing strong presence in that area for a long time into the future," Gates said.
Iran has denounced the Patriot deployment as part of U.S. plan to turn Arab countries into a front line of protection for Israel.
In December, Tehran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, asked Arab leaders to shut down U.S. military bases in the region. Larijani invited Gulf countries to build a regional security alliance with Iran that would replace the U.S. security umbrella. But Gulf Arab governments have shown no interest in a security alliance with Iran.
The deployment of the additional U.S. carrier aims to send a signal that the burdens of war in Iraq are not an opportunity for adventurism by Iran.
"The Iranians clearly believe that we are tied down in Iraq, that they have the initiative, that they are in a position to press us in many ways," Gates said.
Currently, ship-to-ship communications between U.S. Navy and Iranian navy vessels are cordial, Aandahl said.
The Eisenhower and three other U.S. Navy ships off East Africa have been boarding and searching ships sailing to and from Somalia in search of terrorists fleeing the Ethiopian-led invasion but have yet to detain anyone, Aandahl said.
"The fact that the people being sought by the Ethiopians and the (transitional government) in Somalia haven't been using the seas speaks to the fact that we're doing a very efficient job in denying the use of the sea as an escape route," Aandahl said.
Washington will maintain two carriers in the Middle East "as long as the situation demands it," Aandahl said. A typical carrier deployment lasts six months.
The United States maintains nearly 40,000 troops in Gulf countries other than Iraq, including about 25,000 in Kuwait, 6,500 in Qatar, 3,000 in Bahrain, 1,300 in the United Arab Emirates and a few hundred in Oman and Saudi Arabia, according to figures from the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. There are also 1,300 U.S. troops based in Djibouti, in East Africa, according to GlobalSecurity.org.
© Copyright 2007, The Associated Press
