Pentagon denies plans to add third carrier in the Gulf

[unhappycamper]

Pentagon denies plans to add third carrier in the Gulf
AFP
Published: Tuesday July 10, 2007


he aircraft carrier USS Enterprise is deploying to the Gulf region where it will replace one and possibly both carriers already there, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

Navy officials had earlier raised the possibility that the Enterprise would increase the number of carriers in the region to three, which would be the biggest US naval presence in the Gulf since the US invasion of Iraq.

But Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman denied that US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to up the number of carriers to three, and said the deployment of the Enterprise was part of a "routine swap."

"Has the department made a decision for 3.0 carriers in the Gulf? No. They haven't," Whitman said. "What Secretary Gates has said is still the current guidance with respect to the level of effort in the Centcom area of responsibility."

"There is an allocation plan for major assets like carriers, and the secretary would be involved in any decisions with respect to that," he said.

Defense officials later told reporters that the carrier USS Stennis is expected to have left the region by the time the Enterprise arrives, and that the new carrier will replace the USS Nimitz.


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[Cooley Hurd]

1. Navy says one thing, Bush's Pentagon says another...

That, in itself, is NOT a good sign.:scared: