The US Navy has completed the deployment of the second aircraft carrier strike group (ACG) in the eastern Mediterranean, as reported by the US Sixth Fleet.
The newest US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford was joined by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (Nimitz-class), which departed Norfolk Naval Base in the United States on October 14. Both carrier strike groups have already conducted three-day exercises, and it should be noted that carrier strike groups also traditionally include missile cruisers and/or destroyers, as well as submarines.
This is the first time that two aircraft carriers have been deployed in the region at the same time since 2003, when the war against Iraq began. That is, for the first time in 20 years.
At the same time, this concentration will not last long, because despite initial plans to keep two LHDs in the Mediterranean at once against the backdrop of Israel’s operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and to prevent interference from other parties, such as Hezbollah, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to pass through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea.
The USS Bataan and the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall, as well as several other destroyers, are already waiting for him there.
A certain change in plans may be explained by the fact that the Yemeni Houthis have announced that they will continue to fire ballistic and cruise missiles at Israel.
Against the backdrop of the US Navy’s objectively super-powerful deployment in the region, Russia, which maintains its presence in Syria, was able to send only the Admiral Grigorovich frigate of the Russian Black Sea Fleet to the Mediterranean. This ship was in the Mediterranean from the end of October 2021 to April 2023, after which it moved to St. Petersburg for repairs.
However, according to Defense Romania, Moscow decided to return the Admiral Grigorovich to Syria, and the ship left the Baltic together with the Project 20380 corvette Steregushchiy. Both are Kalibr and Onyx carriers.
But the corvette’s mission is not yet clear and it may return to the Baltic. It is also expected that Russia may also send the Novorossiysk submarine Varshavianka, which is currently completing repairs in Kronstadt, to the Mediterranean.
In the meantime, all that Russia has off the coast of Syria from the bows of the Kalibr and Onyx is the small missile ship Orekhovo-Zuevo of the Buyan-M project, which was in the Mediterranean before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion and is unlikely to go anywhere on its own across the ocean because it has low seaworthiness. Also, Russia has stopped keeping Warsaw Pillars in the region, which were withdrawn to the Baltic for repairs.
