DEBKAFile has reported that the USS Enterprise battle group is heading towards the Middle East.

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the US naval build-up off the shores of Iran marks rising military tensions in the region, accentuated by last week’s Hamas victory which has endowed Iran with a military foothold on Israel’s southwestern border.

The USS Enterprise CVN 65-Big E Strike Group will join the USS Stennis and the USS Nimitz carriers, building up the largest sea, air, marine concentration the United States has ever deployed opposite Iran. This goes towards making good on the assurances of four carriers US Vice President Dick Cheney offered the Gulf and Middle East nations during his May tour of the region.

The “Big E” leads a strike group consisting of the guided-missile destroyers USS Arleigh Burke DDG 51, USS Stout DDG 55, Forrest Sherman DDG 98 and USS James E. Williams DDG 95, as well as the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg CG 64, the SS Philadelphia SSN 690 nuclear submarine and the USNS Supply T-AOE 6>

On its decks are the Carrier Air Wing CVW 1, whose pilots fought combat missions in the Gulf and Arabian Sea during 2006. The Air Wing is made up of F/Q-18 Super Hornet strike craft, the Sidewinders Strike Fighter Squadron VFA-86, the 251st Marine Fighter Attack Squadron MFA, and the Electronic Attack Squadron VAQ 137.

The 32nd Sea Control Squadron VS consists of S-3B Vikings. The Airborne Early Warning Squadron VAQ 3 flies E-2C Hawkeye craft. The Fleet Logistics Support Squadron VRC is based on C-2A Greyhounds.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report Washington is considering deploying the fourth US carrier for the region in the Red Sea opposite Saudi Arabian western coast to secure the three US carriers in the Gulf from the rear as well as the Gulf of Aqaba and Suez Canal.

DEBKAFile has the reputation of being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service. It has frequently been used as an outlet for rumor, provocation, and misdirection disguised as news. It is always wise to triple-source information picked up from this source.

Global Security monitors US Navy movements, and reports Enterprise as “Post Deployed,” noting it returned to its home port, Norfolf, VA, on November 22, 2006. Eisenhower and Stennis arrived in the Middle East area in January and February, respectively.

I don’t know what the turn around for aircraft carriers is usually. They typically make a six-month overseas deployment, followed by at least as long a period in home port.

The DEBKAFile report is eerily specific, because the Navy is kind of shy about discussing its submarines. This might be a sign of extremely good record-keeping, strategic guessing, or a threat-feed direct from the Pentagon.

There is a report dated June 22, repeating the DEBKA report word-for-word. Interestingly enough that report copies a June 21st report from a Russian-language website. The .ua domain is The Ukraine.

Such sources are NOT valid cross-checks for DEBKA articles.

I had a short piece about ADM Mike Mullen when he was nominated to replace GEN Peter Pace. At the time WaPo described him from interviews with colleagues as:

Mullen's Navy background would lead him to make decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan from "a different perspective," focused less on ground tactics and more on political dynamics, said retired Adm. Robert J. Natter, who attended the Naval Academy with Mullen.

Mullen is a realist, Natter said. "A realist would say this is as much a political issue solvable only by the Iraqis as it is a military force issue partially solvable by the U.S. military."

There was speculation at the time that ADM Mullen was not going to allow himself to be bullied into signing off on an attack against Iran.

Perhaps ADM Mullen has caved, and agrees with Mr Cheney that the long-hoped-for military confrontation with Iran is not capable of being resolved by political means.

Another war right now would be just the thing to make people stop wondering whether Mr Cheney belongs in the Executive or Legislative departments.

A tip of the too-small Kevlar helmet to The Crazy Bird.

UPDATE: Thanks to alert reader Shanks, we learn that the USS Nimitz is visiting Madras in the Bay of Bengal this week.

WASHINGTON: When the American nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz rounds off the Indian peninsula and heads up Bay of Bengal later this week for an unprecedented port call at Chennai, Indian military historians and long-serving mandarins could be forgiven for a few wry smiles and dry sailorly quips on the occasion.

Just over a quarter century ago, in December 1971, the United States dispatched its then frontline aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal in an effort to intimidate New Delhi, then in the thick of a war with Pakistan. India refused to blink, and an ugly American effort at gunboat diplomacy, engineered by the subsequently disgraced Richard Nixon and his minion Henry Kissinger, passed off without incident.
…
USS Nimitz will incidentally be in Chennai on July 4, the American Independence Day, while two Indian vessels, the tall ship INS Tarangini and the newly acquired amphibious dock INS Jalashwa will be on US shores in Boston and Norfolk.

Officials said sailors from the USS Nimitz will volunteer in numerous good will events in the local community, such as cleaning local sites, refurbishing buildings, and interacting with different members of the community in Chennai. Unstated, but clearly on the agenda, are also efforts to heal the 1971 abrasion.

More on the USS Enterprise here and here.