Peace through strength? The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier has not yet reached the area of responsibility of US Central Command (CENTCOM) and is still not within striking range of Iran, according to Fox News Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin. Griffin reported that it would take several more days to up to a week for the carrier strike group to reach the Gulf of Oman.
According to USNI News, the news outlet of the US Naval Institute, the carrier and its strike group, which includes three destroyers, transited the Malacca Strait over the past week as they made their way west toward the Persian Gulf.
The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush also departed last week from Norfolk, Virginia. Online assessments suggest it too may be heading for the region, although no official source has confirmed this, and in any case its arrival would take at least several weeks.
According to the US Naval Institute's latest update, two US destroyers with precision strike and air defense capabilities are currently operating in the Persian Gulf, along with three additional vessels equipped for mine countermeasures. This capability could prove critical if Iran attempts to close the Strait of Hormuz. Another US destroyer, the USS Roosevelt, is operating in the eastern Mediterranean, according to recent reports.
The Wall Street Journal reported that additional air defense systems are being transferred to the region, including Patriot batteries and the THAAD system. The move is intended to bolster US and Israeli defensive capabilities ahead of a possible Iranian response. At the same time, flight tracking applications have continued in recent days to document the movement of cargo aircraft toward the Middle East, following an extended period in which similar traffic was identified alongside increased activity by aerial refueling planes.
The buildup of naval forces follows reports of the deployment of dozens of US fighter jets in Jordan, which became public last week when US Central Command posted on X that F-15 aircraft had arrived in the Middle East. Open source intelligence analysts assessed that around 35 aircraft were positioned at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in eastern Jordan, alongside heavy cargo aircraft traffic.
Britain has also sent fighter jets to the region. According to the British Ministry of Defence, Typhoon aircraft have been deployed to Qatar as part of defensive preparations.
A senior Iranian official warned on Friday that Tehran would view any US strike as "total war." Speaking anonymously to the Reuters news agency, the official said: "This time, we will treat any attack, limited, unlimited, surgical, kinetic, whatever they call it, as a total war against us, and we will respond in the harshest possible way."
He added: "This concentration of forces, we hope, is not intended for a real confrontation, but our military is prepared for the worst case scenario. That is why everything is on high alert in Iran."
The official said that "if the Americans strike Iran's sovereignty and territorial integrity, we will respond," without detailing what such a response would look like. "A country that lives under constant military threat from the US has no choice but to ensure that everything at its disposal can be used to repel and, if possible, restore the balance against anyone who dares to attack Iran."
The Iranian warning came a day after President Donald Trump said that an American "armada" was on its way toward Iran, though he said he hoped it would not be necessary to use it. Vice President JD Vance said in response to the issue that "the president wanted to make sure if the Iranians, god forbid, did something very stupid, then we have the resources to respond to it."
