The deployment, which may fall on the overstretched Eisenhower, above, will mean an additional load on the Navy’s exhausted warships and crews.Credit...MCS Seaman Eric Edinger/U.S.Navy
New York Times: Pentagon Seeks Carrier Deployment as It Exits Afghanistan, in Sign It’s Readying for a Fight
Military officials said the request was headed to the desk of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, who is expected to decide soon.
WASHINGTON — Military commanders are seeking to deploy an aircraft carrier specifically to help protect NATO troops in Afghanistan as they withdraw, the clearest sign yet that the Pentagon is preparing for a fight as it closes the books on America’s longest war.
But the deployment — likely to fall on either the overstretched Eisenhower or the Theodore Roosevelt, the carrier at the center of a coronavirus crisis last year — will mean an additional load on the Navy’s exhausted warships and crews, after a rash of extended deployments over the past few years.
The request, from Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of Central Command, is en route to the desk of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, military officials said.
Mr. Austin is expected to decide soon.
The appeal is part of a withdrawal that the Pentagon describes as a “military retrograde operation.” Such movements often require — as they do now — sending additional troops and equipment to make sure departing forces can leave safely.
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WNU Editor: I remember when the Soviet military withdrew from Afghanistan in the 1980s, the mujaheddin dramatically escalated their attacks against the departing Soviet forces. I expect the same thing will be happening this summer when US and NATO forces start to leave.
