WORLD / Middle East
US Navy flexes muscles in Persian Gulf
(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-28 09:16
ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS - American warplanes screamed off two
aircraft carriers Tuesday as the US Navy staged its largest show of force
in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth
exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.
A flight deck director signals moments after an F/A 18 C plane leaves the
flight deck aboard of the USS John C. Stenniis Tuesday March 27, 2007,
while sailing in Persian Gulf waters. [AP]
The maneuvers with 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft were sure to
heighten tensions with Iran, which has frequently condemned the US
military presence off its coast and is in a faceoff with the West over
its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team.
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While they would not say when the war games were planned, US commanders
insisted the exercises were not a direct response to Friday's seizure of
the 15 British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that the
flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning.
"If there is strong presence, then it sends a clear message that you
better be careful about trying to intimidate others," said Capt. Bradley
Johanson, commander of the Stennis.
"Iran has adopted a very escalatory posture with the things that they
have done," he added.
The exercises began four days after Iranian forces detained the 15
Britons for allegedly being in Iranian territorial waters near the
northern end of the Gulf. US and British officials insist the team was
properly searching cargo vessels inside Iraqi waters.
F/A-18 fighter jets roared off the Stennis' flight deck all day, mounting
a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against imaginary enemy ships and
aircraft. A second task force with the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
also took part in the drills.
"These maneuvers demonstrate our flexibility and capability to respond to
threats to maritime security," said Navy Lt. John Perkins, 32, of
Louisville, Ky., as the Stennis cruised about 80 miles off the United
Arab Emirates after entering the Persian Gulf overnight.
"They're showing we can keep the maritime environment safe and the vital
link to the global economy open."
At the headquarters of the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, Cmdr. Kevin
Aandahl said the maneuvers would last several days. He said US warships
would stay out of Iran's territorial waters, which extend 12 miles off
the Iranian coast.
None of America's naval coalition partners in the region joined the
maneuvers.
A French naval strike group, led by the aircraft carrier Charles de
Gaulle, was operating just outside the Gulf in the Arabian Sea. But the
French ships were supporting NATO forces in Afghanistan and not taking
part in the US maneuvers, Aandahl said.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Navy routinely conducts
exercises when its forces are deployed near each other.
"The exercise should reassure our friends and allies of our commitment to
security and stability in the region," Whitman said. "We are not
interested in confrontation in the Gulf."
The war games involve more than 10,000 US personnel mounting simulated
attacks on enemy aircraft and ships, while hunting submarines and looking
for mines.
"What it should be seen as by Iran or anyone else is that it's for
regional stability and security," Aandahl said. "These ships are just
another demonstration of that. If there's a destabilizing effect, it's
Iran's behavior."
The US drills were the latest in a series of competing American and
Iranian war games. Iran conducted naval maneuvers in November and April,
while in October the Navy led a training exercise aimed at blocking
nuclear smuggling.
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