Pentagon orders carrier USS Harry Truman to stay in Mediterranean to reassure European allies

A U.S. carrier strike group is lingering in the Mediterranean Sea rather than journeying to the Middle East on orders from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, USNI News learned on Tuesday.

USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), Carrier Air Wing 1 and its escorts are now operating in the Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy rather than resume a planned transit through the Suez Canal to U.S. Central Command, a defense official confirmed to USNI News. USNI News first reported the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group in the Ionian Sea Monday, according to the USNI News Fleet Tracker.

The schedule change, blessed by Austin, is to reassure European allies of U.S commitment to regional security, one official said without mentioning the ongoing Russian military buildup on the eastern border of Ukraine.

Capt. Bill Speaks, spokesperson for European Command, confirmed that the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is operating in the Sixth Fleet’s area of command. He could not comment on future operations as “these deployments are dynamic in nature and due to our operational security policy.”

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