Third U.S. aircraft carrier group set for March deployment to Gulf

Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy has been preparing to intensify operations in the Gulf amid Iran’s threats to block the Strait of Hormuz.

Officials said the Navy plans to deploy another aircraft carrier group in the region in March.

“The group is now conducting training,” an official said.

The planned carrier group was being led by the USS Enterprise. The Enterprise has been exercising off the coast of Florida to practice operations for Hormuz, the passage for 40 percent of the world’s oil shipments.

“There obviously is an emphasis on where we think the ship will go,” Rear Adm. Dennis Fitzpatrick, commander of Strike Force Training Atlantic told The Navy Times.

The Navy has already deployed two carrier groups in the Gulf.
Enterprise, which entered service in 1962, was being sent on what officials said would be its last mission before retirement.

Officials said the exercise was focusing on how to counter Iran’s fleet of fast attack craft, believed to contain anti-ship missiles. They said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, responsible for naval operations in the Gulf, has developed a swarm strategy to overcome large U.S. warships.

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