The WSJ reports that the US is moving additional warships to the Middle East, citing three US officials. It says that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved a request from U.S. Central Command, responsible for American forces in the Middle East, for an element of an amphibious ready group and attached Marine expeditionary unit.
Such a unit would typically include several warships and 5,000 Marines, the officials said.
The Japan-based USS Tripoli and its attached Marines are now headed for the Middle East, two of the officials said.
On that ship:
She is a America-class amphibious assault ship — essentially a flat-deck vessel that functions similarly to a light aircraft carrier. LHA-7 was built by Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was commissioned in 2020. She is designed to operate the F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter as well as various helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft like the MV-22 Osprey. The America-class ships are notable for prioritizing aviation capability, with a larger hangar and flight deck compared to earlier amphibious ships, though the first two ships in the class (including Tripoli) lack a well deck for launching landing craft.
The trip is roughly 6000 nautical miles, which would take 12-16 days, though it’s not clear when it left.
So on the one hand, we have Trump talking like the war could be wrapped up in 4-5 weeks (2-3 weeks now) and we have a unit that won’t even get there until the tail end of that timeline. So what do we go with? What they’re saying or what they’re doing?
The market appears to be increasingly betting on a more-prolonged timeline. The move here is to ensure the Strait of Hormuz is open but that could be a precarious task and it could take several more weeks than an oil price of $100 supports. That could also help to explain why countries are opening strategic oil reserves.
