Carrier strike group surges to the Middle East, armed with F-35s and Tomahawks, ready to deliver precise options should Iran be targeted.
by Kris Osborn, Warrior
The U.S. Navy’s powerhouse USS Abraham Lincoln is surging from the South China Sea to the Middle East to offer President Trump options should he choose to order strikes on Iran. The carrier is a key foundation of the U.S. Naval fleet and will bring a wide range of attack possibilities for the President to consider, should the decision be made to target the Iranian leadership for killing civilians protesting the regime.
Of course the USS Abraham Lincoln operates with a Carrier Air Wing armed with F-35Cs, F-18s and fixed-wing surveillance assets such as the E-2D Hawkeye, yet the massive platform also travels with a Carrier Strike Group including heavily armed destroyers. The presence of warships surrounding the carrier not only “protect” the large ship from incoming attack but also offer heavy firepower options such as Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Carrier Strike Group FirePower
USS Arleigh Burke-class DDG 51 Destroyers are built with Vertical Launch Systems capable of firing precision-guided Tomahawk missiles from ranges out to 900 miles. With these weapons, a Carrier Strike Group could exact a military “effect” without necessarily destroying Iran’s infrastructure or hitting civilian targets. While details of a military strike of this kind are typically not available, targets in these kinds of operations tend to involve leadership headquarters, command and control facilities, troops and weapons locations and ammunition depots.
Iran Strike Similar to Venezuela?
While an operation against Iran would likely be quite different than what was executed in Venezuela, yet there could be some tactical similarities in the sense that an Iranian strike would likely be quick, precise and extremely targeted. This means there is not likely to be any kind of land deployment, apart from possible missile batteries in the region, and there is not likely to be a prolonged air campaign. By contrast, any potential operation is likely to be short, yet decisive. It would potentially not be that much different than what’s known as a “decapitation strike,” meaning a targeted lethal attack on leadership and command and control facilities designed to cripple or destroy the regime without causing widespread destruction.
Decapitate Iranian Leadership?
Without any top-level command and control, forces and supporters loyal to the Iranian regime would be at a loss to communicate, receive orders or enact any kind of stability or cohesive action. The strategic intent in this particular scenario would likely be to disable any leadership authority currently operating on behalf of the regime and enable protesters to essentially take over the country or create a power vacuum large enough for new leadership to arrive.
Advanced Tomahawk missile present U.S. Naval commanders with a number of strike options, given the Block IV Tomahawks operate with a two-way datalink enabling a missile to “change course” in flight as needed, loiter if necessary and even conduct a small measure of ISR-type functions of high-value target areas. Beyond Block IV, the U.S. Navy also operates what’s known as Tactical Tomahawks, cruise missiles able to adjust course very quickly to track and destroy “moving” targets. Arriving just in the last several years, these Tomahawks can leverage new generations of radio signal throughput and guidance technology to hit moving ships or, in the case of Iran, track and target leaders on-the-move.
F-35Cs & Air Attack
Cruise missile strikes using Tomahawks fired from ships or submarines are typically the first weapons used in military campaigns as they can operate from long ranges with precision accuracy and, in a tactical sense, set conditions for an air attack by destroying air defenses, troop locations or other fixed high-value targets. However, there are also likely to be contingencies for which 5th-generation stealth aircraft might be needed, should Iran operate mobile air defenses or ballistic missile launchers seeking to target U.S. assets in the region. Also, while Iranian air defenses, drones and aircraft have likely been massively degraded by Israeli F-35i Adir strikes, there may be a need to establish air supremacy to support a quick-strike option of some kind or strike moving targets from the air. An aircraft such as the F-35C has as much of an ISR surveillance and targeting function as it does an attack capability, so it would be in a position to find fast emerging targets from the air.