Large US ships away from the Mediterranean. The garrison stays with the European NATO marine forces | EUROtoday

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Goodbye Mediterranean. After eight months the three US army ships of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group – consisting of the plane service Bataan (LHD 5), the dock touchdown ship Carter Hall (LSD-50), and the amphibious transport dock ship Mesa Verde (LPD-19) – together with the twenty sixth Marine Expeditionary Unit ( Meu) embarked, are headed in direction of the Atlantic to return dwelling to the bases of Norkfolk, Virginia, and Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.

The deployment after the disaster in Gaza

The Bataan and Carter Hall, with round 3,000 sailors and Marines, arrived within the Middle East in August to counter Iran's makes an attempt to grab business ships within the Persian Gulf. Mesa Verde, along with the twenty sixth MEU Command on board, had as a substitute taken half in workouts within the Baltic Sea. With the outbreak of the disaster in Gaza, since December the three ships have moved to the japanese Mediterranean the place they’ve performed coaching and operations of the US Sixth Fleet (assigned to the Naveur-Navaf, the US Naval Forces Europe-Africa primarily based in Naples) «a help the soundness and maritime safety of allies”. Translated from the official statement: to prevent the conflict from spreading to the entire Middle East.

European marine forces alone

What happens now? With the departure of the ships, preceded by that of the nuclear super aircraft carrier Gerard R. Ford, there are no longer any US naval units in the Mediterranean capable of launching combat aircraft, as had been ensured for the last two years, i.e. since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The consequence is that it is up to European forces to guarantee the protection of NATO's Southern Front. Now, in particular, the navies of Italy, France and Turkey would have to guard the area, without the US shield.

For the USA, exercise in Japan

Few means compared to too many fronts, for the Pentagon. From the Houthi threat to the Indo-Pacific, with China's shadow, the scenarios to be supported are multiplying. Just yesterday, a statement from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) informed of a bilateral exercise with the US Navy to “strengthen the capability of the Japan-US alliance” in tactical and interoperability terms. Exercises will be held until March 16th. For the United States there are the aircraft carrier America, the amphibious transport ship Green Bay, the minehunter Warrior, the landing craft LCAC and the MH-60S helicopter.