US Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Scott Swofford
The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) and ships assigned to the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (HSTCSG) transit the Atlantic Ocean while conducting composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX) on February 16, 2018.
- The US has sent an aircraft carrier to the Middle East amid bubbling tensions with Russia and Syria.
- The last time the US struck Syria, it used US Navy ships.
- Russia has threatened to sink US ships that participate in a strike on Syria.
- Experts tell Business Insider Russia's navy doesn't stand a chance against the US's carrier strike groups.
The US dispatched the USS Harry S. Truman, a massive Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, to a tour of Middle East on Wednesday as tensions between the US, Russia, and Syria reach a boiling point over a pending US strike.
"The strike group, including aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 1, USS Normandy (CG-60), several destroyers of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 28 and German frigate FGS Hessen (F 221), is scheduled to conduct operations in the U.S. Navy's 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility," a US Navy statement read.
Though the specifics of the deployment haven't been revealed, the presence of an aircraft carrier in the US Navy's 5th and 6th fleets will pose a massive challenge to Russia and Syria.
Rear Adm. Eugene Black said at the ship's departure, "We're ready for any mission, anywhere, any time ... The president can send us wherever he wants, with whatever mission he's got, and we're ready to go."
The US previously used navy destroyers when it struck Syria in April 2017. This time, experts expect the strike to be bigger. Russia has threatened to shoot down US missiles and the ships that fire them, but the US has a massive advantage over Russia's forces, should they try to fight back.
Once the Truman carrier strike group arrives, "the US will be able to clean up the eastern Mediterranean in a conventional fight any day," Ryan Bohl, a Middle East analyst at the geopolitical consulting firm Stratfor, previously told Business Insider.
Russia, for its part, has not left its navy dormant, and mobilized 11 ships for fear for its safety as the threat of Trump's strike looms.
The Truman's strike group should arrive in the region by early May.
In the video below see how the US Navy sailors in Norfolk, Virginia set off the Truman: