{"id":37230,"date":"2018-12-21T23:09:03","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T23:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/12\/21\/us-aircraft-carrier-enters-persian-gulf-after-long-absence\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:48:32","slug":"us-aircraft-carrier-enters-persian-gulf-after-long-absence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2018\/12\/21\/us-aircraft-carrier-enters-persian-gulf-after-long-absence\/","title":{"rendered":"US aircraft carrier enters Persian Gulf after long absence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER JOHN C. STENNIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF \u2014 A U.S. aircraft carrier sailed into the Persian Gulf <\/a>on Friday, becoming the first since America\u2019s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May and breaking the longest carrier absence in the volatile region since at least the Sept. 11 terror attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrival of the John C. Stennis<\/a> comes as Iranian officials have returned to repeatedly threatening to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a third of all oil traded by sea passes. Iranian Revolutionary Guard <\/a>vessels shadowed the Stennis and its strike group, at one point launching rockets away from it and flying a drone nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long absence of a carrier, however, could become a standard practice here as now-outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis sought to shake up naval operations and American air bases spanning the region can scramble fighter jets and drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are trying to be more operationally unpredictable,” said Lt. Chloe Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S.’ Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. “Now we’re switching it up because our adversaries are watching closely. We want to be operationally unpredictable to our enemies, but strategically predictable to our partners.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Capt. Randy Peck, the commanding officer of the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, speaks to journalists on Friday. (Jon Gambrell\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Navy invited journalists to ride on the nuclear-powered Stennis, whose homeport is Bremerton, Washington, as it transited the Strait of Hormuz. The strait at its narrowest point is 33 kilometers (21 miles) wide, in the waters between Iran and Oman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite being so narrow and within the territorial waters of those two nations, the strait is viewed as an international transit route. American forces routinely travel through the area, despite sometimes tense encounters with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. For Iran’s part, they compare the American presence to Tehran sending warships to the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tensions have been high since President Donald Trump’s May withdrawal from Iran’s nuclear deal, which saw sanctions lifted for Tehran limiting its uranium enrichment. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate within the country’s Shiite theocracy whose major achievement was the deal, has repeatedly warned any attempt to stop Iran’s export of crude oil could see it close off the strait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the 5th Fleet says it has not seen any “unsafe and unprofessional” actions by Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf since August 2017 before the Stennis’ transit through the strait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout its trip Friday, some 30 Iranian Revolution Guard vessels trailed the Stennis and its strike group. One small vessel launched what appeared to be a commercial-grade drone to film the American ships. Photographers and videographers on the Iranian boats could clearly be seen also filming the Stennis while journalists on board the aircraft carrier filmed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Iranian craft drove in front of our ship and stopped and tried to capture their own sort of picture of what was going on,\u201d said Capt. Randy Peck, the commanding officer of the Stennis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no immediate mention of the Stennis’ arrival to the Persian Gulf in Iranian state media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boats shadow the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis on Friday. (Jon Gambrell\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The long gap between carrier deployments in the Persian Gulf represents a change in U.S. military strategy dating back to the first Gulf War in 1991 and the overflights of Iraq that followed for years after. Mattis, as the head of the U.S. military\u2019s Central Command, himself demanded two carrier groups in the Persian Gulf as he led the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, Mattis has said he wants a more unpredictable Navy to respond to Russia and China, which he sees as the “great power competition” America now faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The way you do this is we ensure that preparation for great power competition drives not simply a rotation schedule that allows me to tell you, three years from now, which aircraft carrier will be where,” Mattis told a U.S. House committee in April. “That’s a great way to run a shipping line. It’s no way to run a Navy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\t