The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered the deployment of an additional aircraft carrier and more US air assets to the Middle East, a move that comes amid a US bombing campaign in Yemen and increasing US threats against Iran.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that the USS Harry Truman and its strike group will remain in the Middle East and will be joined by the USS Carl Vinson and its accompanying warships, which are traveling to the region from the Asia Pacific.
Parnell said Hegseth also “ordered the deployment of additional squadrons and other air assets that will further reinforce our defensive air-support capabilities.”
Last week, the US sent at least five B-2 bombers to its base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which could be used as a launchpad to bomb either Yemen or Iran. The Biden administration used B-2s to launch heavy airstrikes on Yemen in October 2024, an attack the Pentagon made clear was a message to Iran.
The US has been bombing Yemen every day since launching an initial round of airstrikes on March 15. President Trump has signaled the airstrikes could intensify, warning that if the Houthis don’t stop their attacks, the “real pain is yet to come.”
President Trump also recently threatened Iran with a “bombing the likes of which they have never seen before” if a deal is not reached on Tehran’s nuclear program. The threat came after Trump’s intelligence agencies said in a threat assessment that Iran was not working toward a nuclear weapon.
