The aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower replaces John Stennis in the Persian Gulf region

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), who was call between 7 and 10 March in Marseille (see photos), began a four-month mission in the Persian Gulf region and the Arabian Sea to replace the USS John Stennis deployed so far in the area with a cruiser and several destroyers. The USS Eisenhower, along 333 meters for 86 000 tonnes (261 000 tonnes and 42 meters for the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle), is one of the ten aircraft carriers currently operating in the U.S. Navy (eleventh, CV-67 John F. Kennedy, retired from active service in 2007, is in store in Philadelphia).

The USS Eisenhower assume sole mission in the region where the Pentagon policy was usually to have two aircraft carriers in the quasi-permanence. Involved, the automatic cuts occurred in the U.S. defense budget which imposed several months delay the deployment of the USS Harry Truman would have to leave the port of Norfolk (Virginia) in mid-February 2013.

The commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East (CENTCOM), General James Mattis warned Iran in early March, against any attempt "ill-advised" to take advantage of the presence of a single U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf region to "take advantage".

"I still have an aircraft carrier in the corner and I warn any enemy who might see an opportunity to take advantage of the situation it would be unwise on his part, he told the Senate Armed Services Committee , without naming Iran.

"I have what it takes to live with his worst enemy and longer day," he said, adding that a second aircraft carrier could be "rapidly deployed reinforcements."

According to General Mattis, the Harry Truman, now alert to 21 days - a period which could be shortened - 14 days would reach the Gulf.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower that "takes over" in the region entered service in October 1977. The building, nicknamed Ike in reference to the 34th President of the United States whose name it bears, is an aircraft carrier nuclear powered Nimitz class. With nearly 5680 men and women crew can implement between 70 and 90 aircraft. The Eisenhower was regularly deployed in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf throughout his career. It is commanded by Captain Markus A. Hitchcock, and bears the mark of cons-Admiral Michael C. Manazir, commander of the battle group.