Donald Trump deploys world's largest aircraft carrier to Middle East as tensions with Iran surge

Donald Trump has ordered the largest aircraft carrier in the world to move to the Middle East to increase pressure on Iran.

The USS Gerald R. Ford, the newest carrier in the US fleet, was ordered to sail from the Caribbean, where it took part in the operation to capture Nicolas Maduro.

With its last known location off Puerto Rico, the warship and its accompanying vessels may take at least a fortnight to arrive in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Iran, where it will join the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.

The US President made the move following an opening of indirect negotiations in Oman last week regarding Iran’s nuclear capability, ballistic missiles and support for proxies.

Both sides expressed guarded satisfaction with the opening round and a commitment to meet again.

A date and location for a further round, however, has not yet been agreed, and both sides have continued war rhetoric in recent days.

Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said giving up missiles was a “red line”, and warned: “We will respond decisively to any adventurism - our military readiness is high.”

Reining in Iran’s ballistic missile capability was a key demand of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on his visit to Washington this week, although he appeared to leave disappointed after Mr Trump insisted that the talks would continue for the time being.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford, which has capacity for 80 aircraft, will bring another seaborne air wing to bear, dramatically improving the US’s ability to sustain a multi-day campaign of intense strikes on the regime.

The decision to redeploy the ship, which was launched in 2013, follows a reported cooling in the White House over pursuing military action based on the view that commanders could not be sure it would achieve a significant result.

In the past month, there has also been a significant build-up of US military assets on the ground in the Middle East, including ground-based combat jets, air-to-air refuelling tankers, and missile interception systems.

Iran has warned that it will target US bases in the Middle East in retaliation for any attack, and has strengthened its show of military force in recent weeks.

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The nuclear-powered USS Gerald R. Ford operates F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter planes, costing $13billion to build and is equipped with dual-band radar data fusion and other advanced capabilities in its defence system.

It was previously sent to the eastern Mediterranean Sea by former President Joe Biden to support Israel in 2023, two days after the attack on October 7.

On February 7, around 112 C-17 Globemaster III military cargo planes reportedly arrived or made their way towards the Gulf, Army Technology reported.

Satellite images show more US aircraft stationed at the Al-Udeid and Muwaffaq air bases in Qatar and Jordan respectively.

Donald Trump's move comes after he last year ordered US forces to strike Iran's three main nuclear sites - Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow.

"The strikes were a spectacular military success," Mr Trump said in a televised address.

"Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated."

He later wrote on Truth Social: "A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. Fordow is gone."