Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed that the USS Carl Vinson had arrived in the Gulf region, and insisted that its “deployment in that area is routine, long-planned — there’s nothing unusual about that.”
In efforts to avoid stoking further tensions between the US and Iran, Kirby emphasized that “the fact that there are two carriers in that [area] is not an indication of anything specific in respect to Iran . . . There is no change to force posture in the region.”
Despite the Pentagon’s denials of a build-up in the region, the USS Abraham Lincoln was, according to the US Navy, en route to join the USS Carl Vinson.
The USS Carl Vinson is deployed in the 5th Fleet area of responsibility. That area covers the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Oman and portions of the Indian Ocean.