WASHINGTON — For the first time in a long time, the United States now has two Navy aircraft carriers on station in the Middle East.
How long that remains the case is uncertain.
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) arrived in the U.S. Central Command area of operations four days ago. The Lincoln joined USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), which has been there for several months.
On Tuesday, the Pentagon's spokesman declined to say how long the U.S. would maintain the two-carrier presence.
"In the case of the Middle East ... the Secretary [of Defense Lloyd Austin] wanted those two carrier strike groups to remain in the region for now, to be able to provide us additional capability and capacity to protect our forces, support the defense of Israel and also be ready to support a variety of contingencies," said Major General Pat Ryder, Defense Department Press Secretary.
This also means the U.S. currently has no carrier strike group in the Indo-Pacific region.
Asked how long that would be the case, Ryder said he did not want to get into deployment timelines "for operational security reasons."