Carrier USS Lincoln Ordered to Speed Up Transit to Mideast

 

In anticipation of an expected Iranian attack on Israel later this week, the Pentagon has ordered the U.S. Navy to send reinforcements to the Mideast, and with urgency. On Monday, a Defense Department spokesman said that the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln had been ordered to speed up her voyage and get to the theater of operations as quickly as possible. 

Lincoln, which carries a mix of F/A-18 strike fighters and F-35C stealth fighters, has been ordered to "accelerate its transit to the Central Command area of responsibility," Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. 

Lincoln left Guam on August 8, and she conducted exercises with the Italian Navy frigate ITS Alpino and aircraft carrier ITS Cavour on August 9. Based on the top sustainable speed of her escort group, Lincoln is likely a week away from the Arabian Sea. 

On arrival, Lincoln will complement the capabilities of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group, which is already on station near Yemen. USS Roosevelt deployed from San Diego in January, and she is at the seven-month mark for time away from homeport. 

In addition, the guided-missile submarine USS Georgia will transfer from European Command to "the Central Command region," the area from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. According to USNI, the sub has not yet transited the Suez Canal. 

It is relatively unusual for the Pentagon to describe the deployment of a submarine, and the rare occasions are usually for geopolitical signaling. Georgia is a converted Ohio-class sub commissioned in 1984, and she was refitted in 2008 to carry up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles. The conversion gives Georgia "unprecedented strike and special operation mission capabilities from a stealth, clandestine platform," according to the Navy.