Reports: Navy announces deployment of Enterprise strike group to Persian Gulf; Conflicting reports on if it will join or replace Stennis or Nimitz

Above: Launched in 1960, the USS Enterprise was the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, powered by 8 nuclear reactors. Until 1972 it was the largest warship in the world, with a flight deck of 4.5 acres.

Third US aircraft carrier heads to the Gulf

MANAMA (AFP) - Another US Navy aircraft carrier is heading towards the Middle East, boosting the number of the giant warships in the region to three, the navy said in a statement on Tuesday.

The nuclear-powered USS Enterprise and its strike group will join the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz in the navy's Fifth Fleet area of operation, which includes Gulf waters off Iran.

"The Enterprise is heading to Fifth Fleet waters and is not replacing any other ships in the area," a US Navy spokesperson told AFP without elaborating.

The US Navy has significantly beefed up its presence in the region recently amid growing concerns in the West that Iran is secretly developing a nuclear weapons programme -- an accusation Tehran strongly denies.

The Enterprise "provides navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries, as well as support (to) our soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan," Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgrifff said in the statement.

"Regular deployments of the strike groups to the Middle East are not designed to provoke any of the Gulf countries," it added.

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Units from the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group continue deploying

Deployments of units in the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group continued Monday morning with the departure of several more ships and thousands of sailors.

The destroyers USS Arleigh Burke, and James E. Williams left port this morning. The USS Stout and the USS Forest Sherman also depart Monday from Norfolk.

The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg deploys from Mayport, Fla. at the same time and will join the Strike Group at sea.

The fast attack submarine USS Philadelphia will deploy at the end of July.

This follows a tearful sendoff at Naval Station Norfolk Saturday morning as more than 7,000 sailors on board the USS Enterprise headed out to sea.

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USS Enterprise to Replace Carrier in Gulf Area

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Navy is sending the USS Enterprise carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf area to replace another carrier now deployed in the region, a Pentagon spokesman said.

Two carrier groups -- the USS John C. Stennis and the USS Nimitz -- are now with the Fifth Fleet in the Gulf region. The Enterprise will replace one of them as part of a "scheduled swap," spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Another defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified that carrier as the Nimitz.

"It's a routine deployment of the Enterprise" and does not portend changing U.S. policy that calls for keeping two carriers in the region, Whitman told reporters at the Pentagon.

"There are two in the region right now," Whitman said. "Has the department made a decision for three carriers in the gulf? No."

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