The U.S. Navy’s 1,000-foot-long aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford switched on its tracking system for a few hours Wednesday afternoon, revealing its position about 175 miles off the west coast of Morocco on a path for the Strait of Gibraltar and onward into the Mediterranean Sea. The location revealed by the vessel suggested it could arrive in the Eastern Mediterranean days earlier than previously anticipated.
The Ford is the second U.S. aircraft carrier ordered by President Trump to head for the waters around Iran as part of a massive military buildup as he pushes the Islamic Republic to make a deal on its nuclear program. The naval “armada,” as Mr. Trump has called it, is accompanied by a huge surge of U.S. military aircraft to Europe and the Middle East, a CBS News analysis has found.
Top national security officials have told Mr. Trump the U.S. military is ready for potential strikes on Iran as soon as Saturday, but the timeline for any action is likely to extend beyond this weekend, sources familiar with the discussions told CBS News on Wednesday, adding that President Trump had not yet made a final decision about whether to strike Iran.
“Now is the time for Iran to join us on a path that will complete what we’re doing,” Mr. Trump said Thursday at a gathering of his Board of Peace in Washington.
“If they join us, that’ll be great. If they don’t join us, that’ll be great, too. But it’ll be a very different path,” the president said, adding: “If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. But bad things will happen if it doesn’t.”
Over just eight hours on Wednesday, CBS News Confirmed was able to identify more than 50 U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft flying east from military airfields on both U.S. coasts to the United Kingdom, continental Europe and on to the Middle East, where some then disappeared from radar around the Jordan-Saudi Arabia border.
The aircraft seen in transit were mostly refueling, transport and surveillance planes. In addition to the public tracking information, photographs have shown U.S. Air Force F-15, F-22, and F-35 fighter jets landing at U.K. bases and taking off again this week.
The images, captured by civilian plane spotters who upload them to social media, indicate that in addition to the logistics aircraft revealed by tracking data, American strike power has also been moving into the region.
