MOSCOW (Sputnik) – One official in Washington told the newspaper on Wednesday that the deployment "provides some needed presence in the Med to check… the Russians."
Rear Adm. Bret Batchelder, the highest-ranking officer on the carrier, told reporters this week, as quoted by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, that the shift of Harry S. Truman from the Gulf to the eastern Mediterranean is "a demonstration of capability… for sure."
Last Friday, the Unite States launched its first sorties in support of the fight against the Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS, also known as Daesh) from an aircraft carrier the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The strike group includes the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, the guided missile cruiser USS Anzio and the destroyer USS Gonzalez.
On Wednesday, the US European Command (EUCOM) announced that a second US aircraft carrier strike group had arrived in the Mediterranean Sea in support of US national security interests in Europe.
