A carrier strike group and an amphibious ready group carrying a contingent of Marines deployed from the West Coast this week en route to the Middle East, a U.S. defense official told The Epoch Times on Thursday.
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt set sail from San Diego on Sept. 27, the official said, and the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit set sail from San Diego on Sept. 28.
These deployments come amid an ongoing armed standoff with Iran, which U.S. and Israeli forces initiated on Feb. 28.
The George Washington and George H.W. Bush carrier strike groups and the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group are already operating in the waterways of the Middle East. With the latest deployments, there could be three carrier strike groups and two amphibious ready groups simultaneously operating in the waters of the Middle East by late November, the official said. …