Pentagon shifts naval power to Mediterranean, spotlighting USS Eisenhower's strategic move
The Pentagon is pulling ships out of the Red Sea, where they have so far repelled attacks by Yemeni Houthi fighters and protected civilian navigation. To the Mediterranean Sea, an atomic aircraft carrier, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), was sent, along with part of its strike group.
4 May 2024 16:27
The Red Sea has become an arena of unique struggles in recent months. International maritime and air forces there have repelled attacks aimed at both civilian ships and warships.
Although the intense fights proved the effectiveness of Western equipment, they also resulted in a scandal related to malfunctioning armaments on the Danish frigate HDMS Iver Huitfeldt.
New aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea
By the end of April, the Pentagon decided to move part of the forces from the Red Sea to the eastern waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
As a result, one of the region's two operating atomic aircraft carriers, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), along with an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, the USS Gravely (DDG 107), passed through the Suez Canal.
CVN 69 thus joined the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford (CVN-78), strengthening the deterrent forces against Israel's enemies before a potential involvement in the state's war with Hamas.
Second oldest atomic aircraft carrier
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is currently the second oldest, after the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68), an American atomic aircraft carrier. It was commissioned in 1977, and like the other two Nimitz-class ships belonging simultaneously to the Nimitz subclass, it is 333 metres long and 41 metres wide, displacing 103,600 tonnes.
Its air group currently comprises about 90 aircraft from Carrier Air Wing Three, which includes four squadrons of multirole fighters F/A-18E Super Hornets, one squadron of electronic warfare aircraft EA-18G Growlers, an early warning squadron with E-2C Hawkeye aeroplanes, a transport squadron with C-2A Greyhound aeroplanes, and two helicopter squadrons MH-60S Seahawk and MH-60R Seahawk.
The ship has symbolic, purely defensive armaments, including three sets of Phalanx CIWS artillery, two RIM-7 Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles, and two launchers of RIM-116 RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile).
The current plan for modernizing the United States Navy suggests that USS Dwight D. Eisenhower will be retired from service in 2029 and replaced by a newer, representing the Gerald R. Ford class, aircraft carrier USS "Enterprise" (CVN-80).
