Do US Carriers operate in the Persian Gulf (waterway)?

[Mr_sukebe]

Curious about this one as there appears to be confusion about the use of the name "Persian Gulf". Look on Google maps, and it's a quite specific area of water, bordered on it's south eastern end by the Straits of Hormuz, followed by the Gulf of Oman and then the Arabian sea.

 

I've read comments which talk about cruisers, destroyers and similar sailing through the Straits in the Persian Gulf itself. Do US carriers actually sail into Persian Gulf to operate there, or do they normally stay out in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian seat?

[jojo]

Curious about this one as there appears to be confusion about the use of the name "Persian Gulf". Look on Google maps, and it's a quite specific area of water, bordered on it's south eastern end by the Straits of Hormuz, followed by the Gulf of Oman and then the Arabian sea.

 

I've read comments which talk about cruisers, destroyers and similar sailing through the Straits in the Persian Gulf itself. Do US carriers actually sail into Persian Gulf to operate there, or do they normally stay out in the Gulf of Oman and Arabian seat?

 

Yes they do, and Charles de Gaulle too.

But it's a complicated area, and no air ops during the strait crossing...

[QuiGon]

They enter the Persian Gulf to launch their jets from there into Syria/Iraq/Afghanistan.

[FistofZen]

What a silly question.

[QuiGon]

What a silly question.

Why is it silly? It's a legit question.

[Pikey]

What a silly question.

Nah it's legit question. You have to infer Air Ops from the question, when he says carriers. I think really what he means in the OP is what are the rules about AirOps in the Straits of Hormuz, which is practically Iranian airspace.

 

It's a super sensitive area for boundaries.

And there's a huge vulnerability question about moving massive assets like a carrier through it, inside SAM and SSM missile bubbles. Carriers don't like being this close, you have to fold away the open water rulebook. I'm not privvy to the actual Ops ruleset they have to use to get through the straits but you can be sure it's tense.

[Fisherman82]

I don't think its a silly question, I wondered that myself, after some googeling I found this article with a map where USS Eisenhower has sailed through the straits:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6499605.stm

[Kozality]

I was in San Diego this past week visiting the USS Midway, which was part of "Battle Force Zulu" in the Persian Gulf. They have the maps and screens showing the positions of the ships during operations there, and right away you get a feeling for how crowded it was. Our tour guide, a veteran, spoke to the difficulties of operating there as well. Not only were the AirOps complicated, but it's an incredibly congested waterway with all of the light oil tankers making their way to the small gulf states to offload (lighter ships empty into the ports closer to the strait, where it's then loaded into the larger supertankers for the ocean transit, our guide explained.) On the status boards you can see this with replicas of the numerous radar contacts, mostly neutral or unidentified ships.

 

So it's challenging, to say the least. And the presence of such a close shore means that there's not much warning time from land-based ASMs or the like. The guide seemed to indicate that sailing in there is by no means ideal...but the advantage gained from being able to launch aircraft so much closer (which equates to advantages in warload and time-on-station) made up for it.

[Mr_sukebe]

Thanks for confirming chaps

[jojo]

They enter the Persian Gulf to launch their jets from there into Syria/Iraq/Afghanistan.

 

US won't go to Afghanistan from Persian Gulf since they would have to overfly Iran.

They launch from Indian Ocean and overfly Pakistan.

 

Going to Syria from Persian Gulf isn't ideal, you have to fly across all Irak, but yes it's possible now.

 

Freedom of navigation rules state that anybody can cross a strait (no international water) but with inoffensive behavior.

Edited April 17, 2018 by jojo

[Pilotasso]

1991 Gulf war, they used multiple carriers.And again in 2003 invasion.

 

It's risky to use them there due to how easy it is for anyone mount shore based missiles, attack by land based fighters (One US frigate got hit by an Exocet in 1991) or zerg rush the carrier group with fast smaller boats, but the upside is that opposing submarines will have a hard time too.

[jojo]

If you are talking about USS Stark it was during Iran-Irak war in 1987.

It was likely an Iraqi mistake who probably never saw the target.

[QuiGon]

US won't go to Afghanistan from Persian Gulf since they would have to overfly Iran.

They launch Indian Ocean and overfly Pakistan.

You're right. I should've checked the map before commentating... :music_whistling: