According to the website Stop War on Iran a major US naval force is headed for Iran. I have no conformation of this (can anyone confirm this info?). Here is the email they sent out today:
Growing threat – Join us in mobilizing to Stop War on Iran!
As we write, the arrival of new U.S. warships will mark the largest build-up of Naval forces in the Gulf since the 1991 Gulf War.
The aircraft carriers USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan, along with the USS Iwo Jima, an Amphibious Assault Ship are sailing toward the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US strike forces in the region, along with a British Royal Navy carrier battle group and a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine.
This move follows the ominous Operation Brimstone, a massive military exercise involving more than a dozen warships from the US, England, and France in the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for a possible confrontation with Iran.
The USS Roosevelt, which participated in the just-concluded exercise, and the USS Ronald Reagan will join two US naval battle groups in the area: the USS Abraham Lincoln with its Carrier Strike Group Nine ; and the USS Peleliu, and Amphibious Assault Ship with its expeditionary strike group.
Naval forces now heading towards the Gulf include:
Carrier Strike Group Nine:
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN72) nuclear powered carrier with its Carrier Air Wing Two
Destroyer Squadron Nine:
USS Mobile Bay (CG53) guided missile cruiser
USS Russell (DDG59) guided missile destroyer
USS Momsen (DDG92) guided missile destroyer
USS Shoup (DDG86) guided missile destroyer
USS Ford (FFG54) guided missile frigate
USS Ingraham (FFG61) guided missile frigate
USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG60) guided missile frigate
USS Curts (FFG38) guided missile frigate
Plus one or more nuclear hunter-killer submarines
Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Group:
USS Peleliu (LHA-5) a Tarawa-class amphibious assault carrier
USS Pearl Harbor (LSD52) assult ship
USS Dubuque (LPD8) assult ship/landing dock
USS Cape St. George (CG71) guided missile cruiser
USS Halsey (DDG97) guided missile destroyer
USS Benfold (DDG65) guided missile destroyer
Carrier Strike Group Two:
USS Theodore Roosevelt (DVN71) nuclear powered carrier with its Carrier Air Wing Eight
Destroyer Squadron 22:
USS Monterey (CG61) guided missile cruiser
USS Mason (DDG87) guided missile destroyer
USS Nitze (DDG94) guided missile destroyer
USS Sullivans (DDG68) guided missile destroyer
USS Springfield (SSN761) nuclear powered hunter-killer submarine
IWO ESG ~ Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group
USS Iwo Jima (LHD7) amphibious assault carrier with its Amphibious Squadron Four
and with its 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit
USS San Antonio (LPD17) assault ship
USS Velia Gulf (CG72) guided missile cruiser
USS Ramage (DDG61) guided missile destroyer
USS Carter Hall (LSD50) assault ship
USS Roosevelt (DDG80) guided missile destroyer
USS Hartfore (SSN768) nuclear powered hunter-killer submarine
Carrier Strike Group Seven:
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN76) nuclear powered carrier with its Carrier Air Wing 14
Destroyer Squadron 7:
USS Chancellorsville (CG62) guided missile cruiser
USS Howard (DDG83) guided missile destroyer
USS Gridley (DDG101) guided missile destroyer
USS Decatur (DDG73) guided missile destroyer
USS Thach (FFG43) guided missile frigate
USNS Rainier (T-AOE-7) fast combat support ship
This massive deployment means that hundreds of nuclear-armed warplanes, thousands of troops, and destroyers capable of launching cruise missiles carrying nuclear weapons, bunker busters, or fragmentation bombs will be available for a strike on Iran. While Russia is bogged down with the crisis in Georgia, and China is occupied with the Olympics, the Bush Administration may believe that this is an opportune time to strike. This massive deployment is occurring as both Houses of Congress are set to approve resolutions that would mandate a U.S. blockade (which is an act of war under international law).
The time to act is now:
Please sign the petition online at http://stopwaroniran.org/
petition.shtml And please help us get the word out – use the Tell a Friend Link at http://stopwaroniran.org/
friend.shtml Also, in the next few days and weeks, we will be mobilizing in the streets against an attack on Iran. As we write, we are preparing placards, banners, and printed material to take to the Republican and Democratic national conventions. We know that the only force that will stop the warmongers in Washington is a grassroots peoples movement. We need your help to take the message to the conventions and to mobilize for other emergency actions. Please consider making a donation to help with expenses at http://stopwaroniran.org/
donate.shtml
This is the normal propaganda put out anytime the price of oil drops. Probably from Russia or Iran since they gain more than anybody else by keeping the price artificially high.
The rotation is normal schedule and the TR group is not currently enroute. The exercise is held annually and has been since the early 80s and is not targeted on any specific country. Been a apart of those exercises enough times.
Story is pure BS…
@dj elliott: thanks for your input. I have a possibly naive question here, but how hard is it to know at any one time where USN ships are? Is that info in the open or is classified? If its not, what would be a good source (ideally non-gov) to check it?
Thanks,
VS
Kuwait Readying for War in the Gulf
Kind Regards,
Queue
After Georgia, would the United States and Israel dare attack Iran? Most ironic if the outcome of this conflict was indeed Georgia for Iran, but in the other sense that holds back the pit bull with a firm grip. Russian vital interests are as surely at stake in Iran. Russia and China will not sign off on the attack.
Check out Debka.com look for:
“Three major US naval strike forces due this week in Persian Gulf.”
I think Debka is a pretty good source, right?
Here’s what DEBKA.com said:
“Three major US naval strike forces due this week in Persian Gulf
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the arrival of the three new American flotillas will raise to five the number of US strike forces in Middle East waters – an unprecedented build-up since the crisis erupted over Iran’s nuclear program.
This vast naval and air strength consists of more than 40 carriers, warships and submarines, some of the last nuclear-armed, opposite the Islamic Republic, a concentration last seen just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Our military sources postulate five objects of this show of American muscle:
1. The US, aided also by France, Britain and Canada, is finalizing preparations for a partial naval blockade to deny Iran imports of benzene and other refined oil products. This action would indicate that the Bush administration had thrown in the towel on stiff United Nations sanctions and decided to take matters in its own hands.
2. Iran, which imports 40 percent of its refined fuel products from Gulf neighbors, will retaliate for the embargo by shutting the Strait of Hormuz oil route chokepoint, in which case the US naval and air force stand ready to reopen the Strait and fight back any Iranian attempt to break through the blockade.
3. Washington is deploying forces as back-up for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.
4. A potential rush of events in which a US-led blockade, Israeli attack and Iranian reprisals pile up in a very short time and precipitate a major military crisis.
5. While a massive deployment of this nature calls for long planning, its occurrence at this time cannot be divorced from the flare-up of the Caucasian war between Russia and Georgia. While Russia has strengthened its stake in Caspian oil resources by its overwhelming military intervention against Georgia, the Americans are investing might in defending the primary Persian Gulf oil sources of the West and the Far East.
DEBKAfile’s military sources name the three US strike forces en route to the Gulf as the USS Theodore Roosevelt , the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Iwo Jima . Already in place are the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea opposite Iranian shores and the USS Peleliu which is cruising in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden”
Jerusalem Post cites the Kuwaiti Times about the carriers. This rumor is about a week old.
BL
Go Navy is the closest to good open source info on carrier deployments. It’s updated on Tuesdays and today’s update shows no confirming movement from the TR group. The Reagan is in the South China Sea but it can’t pull away for the 5th Fleet before the Washington replaces it on station, which is sometime in September. Galrahn over at Information Dissemination had a good post on this when the story came out in Kuwait about a week back. It all sounds like nerves: Kuwait’s awfully near Iran and is a big target.
@john: thanks for the clarification and links!
Saker, you’re welcome. Fabius Maximus has a post up this morning citing Stratfor to the effect that, as of yesterday, the TR group was at its homeport in Norfolk.
Saker, you’re welcome. Fabius Maximus has a post up this morning citing Stratfor to the effect that, as of yesterday, the TR group was at its homeport in Norfolk.
@john: thanks again! I am very knowledgeable on naval issues and even less so on US naval movements. I really appreciate your pointers!
Cheers!
“The exercise is held annually and has been since the early 80s and is not targeted on any specific country. Been a apart of those exercises enough times.”
This was an exercise with others nation training for a naval blockade of Iran. We practice that every year? Does Israel also hold annual exercises training for long-range bombing runs over Iran?
I guess we’ll find out if it is BS. It seems to match the rhetoric out of Washington though.
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