The United States is diverting a large number of military assets to positions in Europe and the Middle East as the conflict between Israeland Iran continues. The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group is heading to the Middle East from the South China Sea. The strike group includes nine squadrons flying F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, E-2D Hawkeyes, C-2A Greyhounds, and MH-60R/S Sea Hawks.
Additionally, on Sunday, social media accounts tracked the flight paths of multiple KC-135 and KC-46 refueling aircraft heading to Europe. While the refueling tankers traveled with their flight transponders on, it is possible they towed other aircraft as part of the airlift, which did not have activated transponders. These could include B-2 bombers, capable of delivering the GBU-57A/B MOP (Massive Ordnance Penetrator)—a 30,000lb bunker buster bomb capable of destroying Iran’s Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), which is located an estimated half-mile inside a mountain just outside the city of Qom.
Two anonymous American officials have stated that the aircraft were being repositioned to provide President Donald J. Trump with additional options. The Nimitz, set to be decommissioned next year, was initially scheduled to replace the USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea but is now arriving ahead of schedule.
The deployment coincides with Israel’s ongoing offensive against Iran, aimed at destroying the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. “Once they go that route, it’s too late. We will have a second Holocaust—a nuclear Holocaust,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, justifying his country’s attacks on Iran. He added: “The Jewish state is not going to have the Holocaust on the Jewish people. Never again is now, and we have to act now.”
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