US considers naval build-up as warning to Iran
"...Under the proposed build-up, first reported by CBS television, the Pentagon would send an aircraft carrier to join one already in the region. The proposed deployment was described as a message to Tehran not to take provocative steps, and was not preparation for an attack..."
As the article notes, it would most likely be the Stennis (which is not a cruiser, even by Royal Navy classification schemes... dear old Grauniad). It has finshed training and declared "surge ready".
If they needed more, than Reagan, Truman, Roosevelt and Lincoln could rotate out early.
Anyway, we're at new moon right now, so if they wait to cut orders until after christmas, get ready and cruise then we're really looking at the week of March 19th as the earliest plausible date for any serious threatening postures. Don't think they could make Jan if they tried, and Feb would be a bit rushed.
Be interesting to watch the status of the navy in mid/late Feb '07 again and see if they actually do anything or if this is a trial balloon.
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The Stennis a "cruiser"? sheesh...
A British cruiser could almost fit inside her hanger and still leave room for the basketball court. :)
I saw the Stennis in San Diego in June; she didn't look like she was getting to much of a work out and could probably role out at any point.
The Nimitz next to her, however, was going through quite a bit of work. The JFK probably isn't too far from rolling out, however, but they do tend to send the west coast ships into the gulf.
(My dad was on the Constellation for 3 months outside the Gulf in 1980, during the Iran Hostage Crisis. Their total time out to see was 6 months, setting a new deployment record.)
Well, it is the Grauniad, so saying she's a cruiser in the same paragraph that they talk about an aircraft carrier is quite possible without causing internal cognitive dissonance.
But, since it is the Grauniad, the author is clearly referring to the British ploy of classifying its new post WWI carriers as cruisers and building them on smaller hulls to avoid violating the Kellog pact limit on battleship hulls.
That's it.
'Course 70 years later the Royal Navy still doesn't want to think of carriers as ships of the line and thinks in terms of cruiser weight escort carriers... why stop now.