NEW: US Deploys USS Roosevelt Strike Group, Additional Marines To Middle East

The U.S. Navy’s USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group departed San Diego earlier this week for a deployment expected to exceed seven months and directed toward the Middle East, according to defense officials who spoke with the San Diego Tribune.

The Nimitz-class carrier, flagship of Carrier Strike Group 9 and embarking Carrier Air Wing 11, left without a traditional manning-the-rails ceremony. Navy statements described the group as conducting routine operations in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area while en route.

Officials have indicated the Roosevelt is scheduled to relieve the Japan-based USS George Washington, which entered the U.S. 5th Fleet area in mid-August

A separate report from The Jerusalem Post, which cited unnamed U.S. officials, stated that the administration had decided to send a third aircraft carrier and additional Marine forces to U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility. Those accounts noted that a three-carrier posture would require the George Washington to remain in the region after the Roosevelt’s arrival rather than return to the western Pacific.

The Pentagon had not issued a public confirmation of an expanded three-carrier arrangement as of October 1. The United States previously maintained three carriers in the region as recently as April.

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🇺🇸 The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) has left San Diego to build a three-carrier presence in the Middle East

Ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, officials confirmed the Roosevelt will join the USS George Washington and the USS George H.W. Bush, a rare trio of supercarriers,… pic.twitter.com/yisXp9TAVu

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 1, 2026

On September 28, the USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group also departed San Diego. The group consists of the amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island and the amphibious transport docks USS Anchorage and USS John P. Murtha, carrying the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit. An amphibious ready group with an embarked Marine Expeditionary Unit typically includes approximately 2,200 Marines and sailors in the expeditionary unit plus roughly 2,000 Navy personnel on the ships. Aviation assets associated with the unit include F-35B aircraft, MV-22 Ospreys, and attack helicopters.

Two Marine Expeditionary Units, each of about 2,200 Marines, have been assigned to operations connected to the Iran conflict since March.

As of late September, open-source tracking and USNI News fleet data placed two carrier strike groups — the USS George Washington and the USS George H.W. Bush — in the Arabian Sea, along with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group. These formed part of roughly 15 Navy ships operating in that sea, with additional destroyers and a cruiser reported in the Indian Ocean and further warships in the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean.

Since the start of the Iran conflict on February 28, the Navy has generally sustained a two-carrier presence, one amphibious ready group, and about a dozen independent warships in the broader region. The USS Abraham Lincoln, which had spent more than 300 days deployed, was reported near Hawaii by September 28 en route toward the West Coast.

U.S. troop levels in the Middle East have been reported in the range of approximately 50,000 during 2026, reflecting a sustained increase of roughly 10,000 above the pre-conflict baseline of about 40,000 personnel across bases in countries including Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, plus forces afloat.

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