US Navy says aircraft carrier arrives in Red Sea

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) The US aircraft carrier Enterprise has arrived in the Navy's Fifth Fleet area of operations and will operate in Gulf waters and the wider Gulf region, the US Navy said today.

The navy said the USS Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, which includes accompanying destroyers and a submarine, was in the Red Sea after transiting the Suez Canal and would proceed towards the Gulf and wider Gulf waters.

The United States has been flexing its muscles in a standoff with Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme that has stoked regional tensions.

But Lt John Gay of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said the USS Enterprise was now the only aircraft carrier operating in the Gulf and wider Gulf region.

''It's the only carrier in the Fifth Fleet's area of responsibility right now,'' Gay said.

The USS Stennis and the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike groups that were previously deployed in the Gulf were now operating in the Pacific, in the Seventh Fleet's area of responsibility, Gay said.

The navy said in a statement the Enterprise would conduct maritime security operations and provide air support to ground forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Gay said the Stennis and Nimitz were unlikely to resume operating in the Gulf, though he stressed he could not talk about future operations.

''World events are going to drive that - if there is a significant change in the security and stability in the region we would reevaluate the number of ships we have in the area,'' Gay said.

Last month the Pentagon said there had been no decision to increase naval power in the region and said the deployment of the USS Enterprise was a routine measure to replace one of the two carriers then in the Fifth Fleet area.

A Pentagon official said then there was a possibility the navy could go down to one carrier in the region.

The United States sent a second carrier to the Gulf at the start of the year. US officials said the move was designed to reassure US allies concerned about Iran's increasing influence in the region.

REUTERS RN RAI2023