Posted on 03/27/2007 12:49:52 PM PDT by SmithL
ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS, (AP) -- American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.
The maneuvers with 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft were sure to heighten tensions with Iran, which has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coast and is in a faceoff with the West over its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team.
While they would not say when the war games were planned, U.S. commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to Friday's seizure of the 15 British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that the flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning.
"If there is strong presence, then it sends a clear message that you better be careful about trying to intimidate others," said Capt. Bradley Johanson, commander of the Stennis.
"Iran has adopted a very escalatory posture with the things that they have done," he added.
The exercises began four days after Iranian forces detained the 15 Britons for allegedly being in Iranian territorial waters near the northern end of the Gulf. U.S. and British officials insist the team was properly searching cargo vessels inside Iraqi waters.
F/A-18 fighter jets roared off the Stennis' flight deck all day, mounting a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against imaginary enemy ships and aircraft. A second task force with the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower also took part in the drills.
"These maneuvers demonstrate our flexibility and capability to respond to threats to maritime security," said Navy Lt. John Perkins, 32, of Louisville, Ky., as the Stennis cruised...
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bttt
Saber rattled. Check.
Ours is a toothless navy. Fun to watch them flex in any case.
Can the Iranian Navy come out and play?
...but will they actually be used for anything more than a show?
That's one bad-ass carbon footprint!
It is?
??????????????
Please elaborate.
We are not a superpower.
Those jets off the Stennis are Marines based here in San Diego.
Call a Marine toothless and your ass is grass which it probably is already.
One carrier group is like all of WW II all sides, Navy and Air Forces, together. Actually several WW IIs. That might be toothless in some book, but not mine.
I sure wouldn't want to get bitten by our "toothless" Navy.
Please share from your fount of Naval tactical knowledge.
Cast pearls before us unenlightened swine.
We have a lot of make up work and settlement ahead boys! God Speed.
The media and our Congress will have it no other way.
After the Iranians and Iraqis fought to a stalemate and we smashed the Iraqis in 90 days in 1990, they are watching with fear and trembling. We can make them toothless in a region that demands teeth.
Your issue is with elected politicians, not the finest Navy the world has ever seen.
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