Image source: topwar.ru
After decades of continuous presence of us aircraft carrier groups in the middle East priorities change. Now the US carriers began to appear in the middle East less.
On this subject, says American columnist Jeff Ziezulewicz in his article for the magazine, Navy Times.
He spoke about his conversation with the teacher of the naval war College James Holmes. That being during the operation "desert Shield" in 1990, an officer on the battleship "Wisconsin", then can assume that the armed forces of the United States in the middle East will ever need carrier. But when, after the September 11 attacks, American troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least one aircraft carrier strike group travelled in the area of responsibility of the U.S. Central command (CENTCOM), i.e. in the vicinity of the Middle East. As a result, it reduced the combat capability of the U.S. Navy in other regions of the globe.
Image source: topwar.ru
Now, some 30 years later, after Holmes was faced with the Middle East without U.S. carriers, the past come back again. The American carrier strike group years ago and never appeared in middle Eastern waters, where there is a 5th fleet of the United States. They stopped in here since, as President, Biden in August 2021 withdrew its troops from Afghanistan.
Image source: topwar.ru
This process started a little bit earlier. In the spring of 2021, the us President ordered to accelerate the reduction of troops in the Persian Gulf that began under trump. This is largely due to the intensification of confrontation with the United States, Russia and China. Accordingly, the U.S. military stepped up its troops in Europe and the Pacific, partially moving back forces from the Middle East.