Hurry up. America\u2019s top shooters are moving into position to target Iran.\u00a0 With Sunday night\u2019s announcement hastening the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and moving the submarine USS Georgia under U.S. Central Command\u2019s control, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is making sure U.S. Central Command is prepared to attack Iran, and\/or its proxies, if Tehran strikes Israel in the next few days.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Air Force F-22 fighter jet pilots have already unpacked their bags at a Middle East base where they arrived Aug 8.\u00a0 Here are more top shooters under Central Command\u2019s operational control \u2013 that we know of.<\/p>\n It\u2019s very unusual for the Pentagon to make announcements about secretive submarines.\u00a0But then, the\u00a0<\/strong>USS Georgia is a very special vessel.\u00a0 Powered by a nuclear reactor, the USS Georgia began life as an Ohio-class “boomer” designed to carry nuclear weapons, then underwent a high-tech conversion into a conventional guided-missile attack submarine.\u00a0 Now she can carry an astounding 154 precision Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles.\u00a0 And SEAL teams with mini-submarines.\u00a0 Add in a highly advanced communication suite, and USS Georgia can stare down Iran all by herself.<\/p>\n US ASSETS DEPLOYED TO MIDEAST WILL HELP ISRAEL BUT WILL UNLIKELY ALTER IRAN’S MIND ON RETALIATION, EXPERTS SAY<\/strong><\/p>\n The USS Georgia was already on exercises in Europe and is positioning in the Eastern Mediterranean.\u00a0Her Tomahawk missiles have roughly a 1,000-mile range, which equates to good coverage well into Iran.\u00a0 The most modern Tomahawks also accept targeting updates while in flight, giving commanders maximum flexibility to act on fresh intelligence.<\/p>\n That\u2019s six in the Persian Gulf, and two more in the Red Sea, per a count from the Washington Post on Aug. 2.\u00a0 Crews from ships like USS Laboon have been whacking Houthi drones, missiles and unmanned boats for months.\u00a0 The DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers can fire Tomahawks, too, as but the destroyers will have some of their vertical launch tubes loaded with Standard Missiles for air defense across the region, as seen when Iran attacked Israel back in April.<\/p>\n Austin ordered the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to speed up its transit from the Pacific to the Middle East, where the USS Theodore Roosevelt is already running sustained flight operations.\u00a0 Nuclear-powered carriers can charge ahead at 35 knots per hour without slacking off, since they don\u2019t refuel.\u00a0 The Middle East crisis has compelled Central Command to keep a carrier in the Red Sea area almost non-stop for 10 months and it has required four carriers \u2013 Ford, Eisenhower, Roosevelt and Lincoln \u2013 to meet the tasking.\u00a0Moving the Lincoln actually leaves the Navy one carrier short in the Pacific.<\/p>\n \u00a0In this handout photo provided by the US Navy, The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) transits the Strait of Hormuz as an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter from the Nightdippers of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 5 lifts off from the flight deck. (Photo by Stephanie Contreras- U.S. Navy via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n IRAN IS LIKELY WEIGHING \u2018RISK OF FAILURE\u2019 BEFORE POTENTIAL ISRAEL STRIKE: JOSEPH VOTEL<\/strong><\/p>\n Austin touted the F-35Cs on the Lincoln by name on Sunday, because these stealthy, carrier-based jets have tremendous radar and other sensor capabilities known to intimidate Iran.\u00a0 In an unusual twist, it\u2019s a U.S. Marine Corps squadron flying the F-35Cs.\u00a0 Other Marines fly the F-35B vertical take-off and landing variant with amphibious ships.\u00a0 But this squadron, the “Black Knights” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA 314, trains and flies as part of Carrier Air Wing 9.\u00a0 (Don\u2019t look so shocked.\u00a0 Marines flew from carriers in World War II and Korea.)<\/p>\n Yes, the very jet flown by Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.”\u00a0 Carrier Air Wing 11 on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt has three F\/A-18E squadrons.\u00a0 They have been busy day and night with air patrols against Houthi aggression in the Red Sea and doing their part in knocking out Houthi drones, missiles and unmanned boats.<\/p>\n FILE \u2013 A U.S. Navy F\/A-18 Superhornet aircraft soars above the Baltic Sea Region while participating in BALTOPS-22, June 9, 2022.\u00a0 (Air Force Senior Airman Nicholas Swift)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This ground-attack variant of the F-15 air superiority fighter is affectionately known as the “Mud Eagle” and has been operating quietly in theater for ages.\u00a0The F-15Es are true fighter-bombers, and their most experienced pilots have thousands of combat hours from the anti-ISIS war.\u00a0 The two-seat F-15Es carry air-to-air missiles, a gun and “any nuclear or conventional weapon in the USAF inventory.” Just so you know, Iran.<\/p>\n Austin\u2019s choice to deploy America’s top of the line strike options serves two purposes. The first, obviously, is to deter Iran and constrain Iran’s tactical options as the mullahs mull their retaliation plans. \u00a0But the specific choice of these forces is to provide Central Command with capability for sustained, precision strikes against military targets in Iran or among Iran\u2019s militia groups.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget that U.S. B-2 bombers can reach any spot on the globe.\u00a0 Also, B-1 bombers were used by Central Command in attacks on Syrian targets. I would not be surprised to see the B-1s in action again with their joint stand-off missiles.<\/p>\n Beyond this, expect Britain, France, regional allies like Jordan, and others to have forces in play.<\/p>\n Of course, China is taking note of this firepower display.\u00a0China\u2019s Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued a statement on Saturday supporting Iran\u2019s “dignity” and right to self-defense, whatever that means.\u00a0 Iran is the center of Mideast terror and China is Iran\u2019s top ally.<\/p>\n Gen. Erik Kurilla at U.S. Central Command will soon have all he needs to defend, deter or strike back.<\/p>\n As they strive to keep a lid on this crisis, we owe a big debt of gratitude to the American men and women making these crisis deployments in the Middle East.<\/p>\n FROM REBECCA GRANT<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [ad_2]<\/p>\n Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] Hurry up. America\u2019s top shooters are moving into position to target Iran.\u00a0 With Sunday night\u2019s announcement hastening the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and moving the submarine USS Georgia under U.S. Central Command\u2019s control, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is making sure U.S. Central Command is prepared to attack Iran, and\/or its proxies, if […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"adace-sponsor":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2376,"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions\/2376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"adace-sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clickmen.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/adace-sponsor?post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The guided missile submarine USS Georgia<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Eight U.S. Navy destroyers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Two aircraft carriers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"\u00a0In](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/343\/192\/GettyImages-1183449975.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
<\/picture><\/div>\nA squadron of F-35C carrier jets flown by Marines<\/strong><\/h3>\n
F\/A-18EF Superhornets<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"U.S.](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/343\/192\/220609-F-FY723-1064A-copy.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
<\/picture><\/div>\nAir Force F-15E Strike Eagles<\/strong><\/h3>\n