Middle East Notes and Comment: Brother, Can You Spare a Carrier?

November 19, 2012

An aircraft carrier is a scarce resource. The United States has eleven carriers in its entire fleet, and only about half can deploy at any given time. According to the website globalsecurity.org, five U.S. carriers are currently at sea, and two of them are currently off the coast of Iran. That’s a lot of firepower directed toward one target, especially when few expect U.S. tensions with Iran to vanish—or even diminish—any time soon.