By admin 
In a significant display of military readiness, BBC Verify has confirmed the passage of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the U.S. Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, through the Strait of Gibraltar towards the Mediterranean Sea on Friday. Verified photographs, captured from land in Gibraltar, clearly depict the colossal warship navigating the strategic waterway, with the distinctive Moroccan mountain range visible in the distance. This deployment is part of a broader pattern of increased U.S. military presence in the Middle East, raising international concerns as diplomatic efforts with Iran appear to be at a critical juncture.
Ship-tracking data further corroborates the movement of the Gerald R. Ford’s strike group, with the USS Mahan, a guided-missile destroyer, also confirmed to have transited the Strait. The Gerald R. Ford had briefly broadcast its location off Morocco’s Atlantic coast on Wednesday, and intelligence suggests its ultimate destination is the Middle East. This mirrors the recent movements of another U.S. aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, which was tracked earlier in the week in the same volatile region.
The heightened U.S. military posture comes at a time of intense diplomatic activity between the United States and Iran. U.S. and Iranian officials convened for a second round of talks in Switzerland earlier this week, with reports indicating some progress being made. However, President Donald Trump’s statement on Thursday, suggesting the world would know within the next 10 days whether a deal with Iran would be reached or if military action would be pursued, underscores the precariousness of the situation.
BBC Verify had previously identified the USS Abraham Lincoln in satellite imagery taken on Saturday off the coast of Oman, approximately 700 kilometers (430 miles) from Iran’s territorial waters. The presence of two of the eleven aircraft carriers operated by the U.S. Navy represents a substantial military build-up in the Middle East over the past few weeks. BBC Verify has been diligently tracking an increase in destroyers, combat ships, and fighter jets deployed to the region, painting a clear picture of evolving strategic positioning.
Both the Gerald R. Ford and Abraham Lincoln lead formidable strike groups, each comprising several guided-missile destroyer warships. These powerful naval formations are crewed by over 5,600 personnel and are equipped to carry dozens of advanced aircraft, including fighter jets, attack helicopters, and reconnaissance planes. The sheer scale of these deployments signifies a significant commitment of U.S. naval power to the region.
What Military Assets Has the U.S. Moved into the Middle East?
The USS Gerald R. Ford first activated its ship-tracking automatic identification system (AIS) for the current year at 12:30 GMT on Wednesday. For a period of approximately 48 minutes, until 13:18, the carrier transmitted its location, visible on the ship-tracking website MarineTraffic, indicating a westward trajectory towards the Mediterranean. While the carrier itself continued its journey, a transport aircraft attached to the Gerald R. Ford, which had landed in Spain on the same day, was tracked at around 13:00 on Thursday heading towards the general area where the aircraft carrier had been spotted. This suggests a coordinated operational movement of assets supporting the carrier strike group.
The earlier sighting of the Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, approximately 240 kilometers (150 miles) off the coast of Oman, was confirmed through publicly available satellite imagery captured on Saturday by the European Sentinel-2 satellites. The Abraham Lincoln had not been visually confirmed since its reported entry into the region in January, although it had been traversing open seas where satellite coverage is inherently limited. In contrast, military assets positioned on land are far more observable and are frequently captured by satellite surveillance, providing more consistent tracking data.
To date, BBC Verify has tracked a total of 12 U.S. Navy ships operating in the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered carrier, is accompanied by three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, forming its carrier strike group. Additionally, two other destroyers capable of launching long-range missile strikes, along with three specialist ships designed for amphibious combat operations near shore, are currently stationed at the Bahrain naval station in the Persian Gulf. Two further destroyers have been observed in the eastern Mediterranean, operating near the U.S. naval base at Souda Bay, Crete, and an additional destroyer is present in the Red Sea.
Beyond naval deployments, the U.S. has also been observed moving substantial numbers of aircraft to various airbases across Europe and the Middle East. These movements include fighter jets, bombers, and support aircraft, further bolstering the U.S. military’s operational capacity in the region. The specifics of these aerial deployments are being continuously monitored and analyzed by BBC Verify.
How Has Iran Responded?
In response to the escalating U.S. military presence and the perceived threat, Iran has initiated its own displays of military strength. On Monday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a maritime drill in the Strait of Hormuz, a critically important chokepoint situated in the Persian Gulf between Iran and Oman. Reports from the IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency detailed the exercise, which included IRGC Commander-in-Chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour inspecting naval vessels at a harbor before observing missile launches from a ship.
The Strait of Hormuz is globally recognized as one of the world’s most vital shipping routes and a crucial transit point for oil. Approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply passes through this narrow waterway, including shipments from Iran’s primary oil export terminal at Kharg Island. During the exercise, Maj. Gen. Pakpour was seen surveying the island from a helicopter, underscoring Iran’s readiness to assert control over this strategic passage.
Further demonstrating its military capabilities and commitment to regional security, Iranian state television broadcast footage on Thursday showcasing planned naval drills in the Gulf of Oman with Russia. These joint exercises included a simulated ship rescue operation, highlighting a growing strategic partnership between the two nations in the region. Fars news agency, an outlet affiliated with the IRGC, reported that operational units from both Iran’s regular army navy and the IRGC navy participated in these maneuvers.
How Does It Compare with Venezuela and Operation Midnight Hammer?
Military intelligence expert Justin Crump, CEO of the risk and intelligence company Sibylline, has offered a comparative analysis of the current U.S. military deployments in the Middle East. He asserts that the present preparations exhibit "more depth and sustainability" than maneuvers conducted prior to the seizure of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January or the operation that carried out air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last June.
While all these scenarios involved the deployment of a carrier strike group and several destroyers operating independently, the circumstances and strategic objectives differed significantly. The U.S. deployed its assets to Venezuela ahead of operations there, with the USS Gerald R. Ford part of a contingent of eight warships tracked in the Caribbean at the time. However, the operational requirements for Venezuela were less demanding in terms of aircraft deployment, as jets could be easily dispatched from surrounding U.S. bases on the mainland or from its base in Puerto Rico. Moreover, the U.S. also deployed amphibious assault ships within the Caribbean, which served as effective launch platforms for helicopter operations, as demonstrated during Maduro’s capture. Critically, Venezuela’s military was widely considered less capable of mounting a substantial defense or retaliatory response against U.S. forces.
In contrast, the U.S. operation targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, known as Operation Midnight Hammer, involved confronting a nation with a significantly more formidable military capability than Venezuela’s. Iran possesses the capacity to strike U.S. bases across the Middle East, necessitating a more robust and multifaceted response. The recent build-up in the Middle East bears a closer resemblance to the strategic posture adopted during Operation Midnight Hammer. During that operation, the U.S. had two aircraft carrier strike groups in the region, five destroyers strategically positioned in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, and three combat ships stationed in the Persian Gulf.
Furthermore, the U.S. had also relocated squadrons of fighter jets and refueling aircraft from the United States to European airbases. Notably, the B-2 stealth bomber flights that executed strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordo, Isfahan, and Natanz actually originated from U.S. bases in Missouri, underscoring the global reach of U.S. air power.
Crump elaborated on the implications of the current deployment, stating that the concentration of U.S. warships and aircraft, coupled with the presence of eight pre-existing airbases in the region, would enable the U.S. to sustain a "fairly intensive and sustained strike rate" of approximately 800 sorties per day. The objective of such a deployment would be to neutralize any Iranian responses and render them "ineffective."
He concluded by characterizing the current situation as more than just strike preparation, but rather a "broader deterrent deployment capable of being scaled up or down." Crump emphasized that this approach offers "more depth and sustainability than the force packages arranged for either Venezuela or Midnight Hammer last year. It’s designed to sustain an engagement and counter all potential responses against U.S. assets in the region and, of course, Israel." This suggests a comprehensive strategy aimed at both deterring aggression and ensuring the security of U.S. interests and allies in the Middle East.
Additional reporting by Barbara Metzler, Ghoncheh Habibiazad, Thomas Copeland, Yi Ma.